Silver Snail Medic

Product Description

• Seed Agronomy Table

  Seeding Rate - Dryland (kg/ha)

  15 - 18

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

  18 - 25

  Hard Seed Level Rating

  8

  Flowering

  77 days

  Waterlogging Tolerance

  Fair

• Seed Treatment

  Goldstrike LongLife®

• Enterprises For This Seed

  Beef and Sheep

  Dairy

  Silage and Hay

  Viticulture and Horticulture

• Strengths

  Well adapted to alkaline, cracking clay soils Useful in crop/pasture rotation systems Vigorous seedlings and high DM production Good tolerance to red legged earth mite Less likelihood of bloat than with other medics

• Limitations

  Poor persistence in long term tropical grass pastures Not adapted to soils with pH lower than 6.5 Regenerating seedlings can be a weed problem in winter crops

• Plant Description
  Plant

  Semi-erect to erect, selfregenerating, cool season annual legume, growing to 50 centimetres tall.

  Stems

  Soft, semi-erect, branching and hairy.

  Leaves

  Comprise three elliptically shaped, hairless, leaflets (sometimes with short hairs on the upper surface, and short to longer hairs on the lower surface); 15 to 30 millimetres long, 7 to 20 millimetres wide; leaf margin serrated; purple flecking (generally sparse) in some cultivars.

  Flowers

  Yellow to orange yellow, about 10 millimetres wide, 1 to 3 in a cluster.

  Pods

  Large (13 millimetres), spineless, globe -shaped, comprising five to six coils; straw coloured to grey to dark grey when mature, containing six to ten seeds.

• Pasture Type And Use

  Generally winter growing annual ley legume in dryland cereal growing regions of southern and subtropical Australia, where it is grazed by livestock or cut for hay. It is suited for hay production because of its upright growth. It may be used as a legume component in permanent grass/legume pastures in the cooler subtropics.

• Rainfall

  Requires an annual rainfall of 300 to 700 millimetres.

• Temperature

  A winter/spring growing annual that can withstand low temperatures, although production is limited by frosts. More productive when sown in early autumn.

• Establishment
  Companion Species

  Often grown with winter cereals such as oats for grass/legume hay production; sown with other medics including barrel medic in the subtropics and gama medic in southern Australia. It regenerates later than barrel, strand and burr medics.

  Sowing/Planting Rates In Mixtures

  Sow at a rate depending on the proportion in the mix, but generally 3 to 4 kilograms per hectare. Ensure seed is Goldstrike LongLife® treated.

  Sowing/Planting Rates as Single Species

  15 to 18 kilograms per hectare. Ensure seed is Goldstrike LongLife® treated.

  Sowing Time

  Early autumn to early winter.

  Inoculation

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

  Fertiliser

  Where soils are low in nutrients, particularly phosphorus (P) and/or sulphur (S), it would be beneficial to apply 10 to 15 kilograms P and 10 kilograms siemens per hectare annually, and copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and molybdenum (Mo) if they are deficient. Soil tests will determine the need and appropriate rates. In permanent pasture, fertilise according to deficiencies identified in soil tests.

• Management
  Maintenance Fertiliser

  Snail medic is generally grown in rotation with crops. If the soils are deficient, particularly in P and S, the crops are fertilised accordingly. In a rotation system, there should be sufficient residual fertiliser for good medic production. Soil tests will determine the need and appropriate fertiliser rates.

  Grazing/Cutting

  In the establishment year, delay grazing until plants are well established. Graze leniently until flowering then remove stock to maximise seed set. Rotationally graze in following years. Snail medic is susceptible to heavy grazing. Pods ay be eaten by sheep grazing the pasture during the summer and on soils that are not self mulching, this may reduce the seed reserve significantly.

  Ability to Spread

  Small amounts of seed are spread in the dung following ingestion by livestock. Seed can also be spread through hay.

  Weed Potential

  Low weed potential as snail medic is palatable and readily eaten by livestock, and is limited in its soil adaptation. Being a self regenerating annual with a staggered germination, it can be a weed of cereal and grain legume crops.

  Major Pests

  Some tolerance to red legged earth mite, lucerne flea and spotted alfalfa aphid, but susceptible to blue green aphid.

  Major Diseases

  Susceptible to root rot, alfalfa mosaic virus, and black stem fungus/phoma.

  Herbicide Susceptibility

  Susceptible to residual herbicides from a cropping phase, particularly sulfonylurea on alkaline soils.

• Animal Production
  Palatability

  Palatable.

  Production Potential

  Live weight gain of 1 kilogram per day with cattle or 300 grams per day with lambs can be expected.

  Livestock Disorders/Toxicity

  Occasionally red gut in sheep; can cause bloat in cattle, though with a lower probability than other medics.

• 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