Q31 Lucerne

Product Description

• Seed Agronomy Table

  Seeding Rate - Dryland (kg/ha)

  4 - 8

  Seeding Rate - Hay Production (kg/ha)

  25 - 30

  Seeding Rate - High Rainfall/Irrigation (kg/ha)

  10 - 20

  Winter Activity

  3

• Seed Treatment

  Goldstrike LongLife® XLR8™

• Enterprises For This Seed

  Beef and Sheep

  Dairy

  Lucerne

  Silage and Hay

• Strengths

  Perennial, year round production Deep rooting, extracts water and nutrients from depth, restricts water table recharge Moderate tolerance of soil salinity Responds quickly to spring and summer rainfall (or irrigation) Dual purpose (grazing and hay) Highly productive High nutritive value

• Limitations

  Susceptible to waterlogging Needs rotational grazing Can cause bloat in cattle

• Plant Description
  Plant

  Deep rooted, upright, perennial legume.

  Stems

  Erect from 40 to 80 centimetres high at 10 per cent flower.

  Leaves

  Comprise three smooth, slightly toothed, oval, wedge shaped to pointed leaflets, sometimes with white crescent shaped markings. Leaf veins strong, straight with little branching. Broadly triangular stipules with 1 or more small teeth occur at the point of leaf attachment to the stem.

  Flowers

  Pea flowers, mostly purple in colour, and about 8 millimetres across, borne in clusters up to 4 centimetres long at the tops of branches.

  Pods

  4 to 5 coils in a spiral, spineless with a hard outer surface; produced in clusters; 1 to 5 seeds per pod.

  Seeds

  Small, green to yellow to light brown in colour; kidney shaped; 440,000 to 500,000 seeds per kilogram.

• Pasture Type And Use

  Medium term perennial (3 to 5 years); year-round production, predominantly in the spring/summer but with varying levels of winter production (winter activity). Used for conservation, particularly hay production; as a ‘ley’ legume in cropping rotations (often called a ‘phase’ legume in such systems in southern and western Australia); and as a medium-term legume in long term grass pastures in the subtropics.

• Rainfall

  In rain grown stands, 500 to 1200 millimitres annually (subtropics); 250 to 800 millimitres annually (southern and western Australia).

• Soils

  Lucerne requires deep, well drained soils (sands to moderately heavy clays) with a slightly acid to alkaline pH. It is intolerant of high levels of exchangeable aluminium and even short periods of waterlogging.

• Temperature

  Optimum temperatures for dry matter production range from 15 to 25°C in the day and 10 to 20°C during the night. However, this will vary with the winter activity level of the cultivar.

• Establishment
  Companion Species

  Lucerne is often sown as a pure sward. It is very competitive but if sown at a low rate it will grow with species such as early flowering sub clover/annual medics, phalaris and Mediterranean types of tall fescue to boost winter production. It can be grown with chicory and a range of tropical grasses.

  Legumes

  2 to 12 kilograms per hectare for dryland hay or grazing, depending on annual rainfall. 8 to 20 kilograms per hectare for irrigated hay production. Sow into a finely worked, moist, weed-free seedbed at 1 to 2 centimetres; cover with light harrows/weldmesh. On light soils rolling is desirable to improve seed moisture contact. Direct-drilling can work but failures occur and caution is warranted.

  Sowing/Planting Rates In Mixtures

  0.25 to 1 kilogram per hectare in a grass pasture, depending on the makeup of the legume component of the stand.

  Sowing/Planting Rates as Single Species

  Early autumn to early winter; late April is ideal. In southern Australia districts with an eight month or more growing season, lucerne is best sown between late August & October, ideally on a winter fallow. Late Spring sowings are dictated by wet years.

  Inoculation

  Goldstrike LongLife® XLR8™ treated. The use of Goldstrike LongLife® XLR8™ seed treatment is recommended to reduce damage from insects at seedling stages.

  Fertiliser

  On marginal fertility soils, responses to magnesium, manganese, zinc, molybdenum, boron and copper can occur. Establishment on acid soils is often made possible following the spreading/incorporating 1 to 5 tonne lime per hectare. Aluminium toxicity can occur on soils with pH of lower than 5.5 (water) or 4.7 (calcium chloride). Based on soil test, potassium (K), phosphorus (P) and sulphur (S) levels need to be maintained at the following levels: K: 0.3 metres. Equivalent to 100 grams; P: 25 milligrams per kilogram; S: 10 milligrams per kilogram.

• Management
  Leaf and Stem Diseases

  Alfalfa mosaic virus, lucerne yellows, bacterial leaf and stem spot, witches broom, common leafspot, Stemphylium leaf spot, Leptosphaerulina leaf spot or pepperspot, rust, downy mildew, Cercospora leaf spot, Phoma black stem, powdery mildew.

  Root and Crown Diseases

  Phytophthora root rot, Colletotrichum crown rot, Rhizoctonia canker (most significant,) violet root rot, Acrocalymma crown and root rot, Stagonospora crown and root rot, Fusarium wilt, bacterial wilt, Sclerotium blight and Sclerotinia rot.

• Animal Production
  Feeding Value

  Lucerne is highly digestible (60 to 75 per cent), is a good source of crude protein (15 to 25 per cent), and has high levels of metabolisable (8 to 11 megajoules per kilogram dry matter).

  Palatability

  Very Palatable.

  Production Potential

  Daily live weight gains for beef cattle range between 0.7 kilograms per head per day from stemmy lucerne to 1.5 kilograms per head per day from young, leafy regrowth. Live weight gains of 300 to 400 grams per head per day are achievable with lambs.

  Livestock Disorders/Toxicity

  There are few problems. To avoid cattle bloat, nitrate poisoning and red gut, do not graze immature/lush lucerne, especially with hungry stock (pre-feed with dry roughage).

• Establishment Guarantee

  At S&W Seed Company Australia we're so confident about our seed genetics and seed quality, we will replace seed at half the original purchase price if it fails to establish satisfactorily in the first thirty days* Read more