Hummer tall fescue with MaxP® endophyte

Hummer Tall Fescue with MaxP® endophyteSelected for its fine soft leaves, Hummer tall fescue with MaxP® endophyte brings a new dimension to productivity and persistence for summer active grasses making it ideal for all your dairy, beef and sheep grazing needs.

Type Endophyte Status

Heading Date Sowing Rate Best Grazing Practice

Perennial MaxP® Early – Mid Pure Sward 20 – 25 kg/ha

Rotational

Hummer is Agricom’s new summer active tall fescue. It has shown excellent persistence and maintains its density in the sward. The sod forming characteristics make Hummer easier to manage compared to older tall fescue cultivars.

Hummer was selected for fine soft leaves, high tiller density, persistence and high yielding characteristics. The leaf softness characteristic is a management advantage especially if the fescue stand grows beyond the optimal grazing height.

Hummer can be used for different purposes in farming systems as it can tolerate heavy, wet and moderately saline soils compared to perennial ryegrass.

Hummer also has better heat tolerance, productivity and feed quality than perennial ryegrass over summer whilst providing better water use efficiency under irrigation over summer than ryegrass based pastures.

Hummer is ideal in hot summer environments with moisture such as irrigated dairy pastures as well as sheep and beef operations. It can also be used in a mixed pasture particularly sown with clover increasing overall quality of the pasture.

Key Features

• High quality summer active tall fescue

• Fine, palatable leaf encourages greater utilisation by stock

• Contains MaxP® endophyte for improved persistence and significant yield advantages

• High tiller density from the base of the plant, reducing clumping

• Ideal for hot summer environments with moisture

A paper on endophyte by Sewell & Hume (et al. 2014) recently published in the journal of Crop and Pasture Science found that tall fescues infected with a selected endophyte (Max P) had improved agronomic performance relative to endophyte-free in a majority of experiments, and on occasions, the endophyte was essential for tall fescue persistence.

In high-stress environments where grass is grown, endophyte was more important for agronomic performance than difference between varieties.

For further reading: Reference: Hume and Sewell (2014): Agronomic advantages conferred by endophyte inection of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) and tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) in Australia. Crop and Pasture Science, 65, p747-757.

MaxP® EndophyteMaxP® is a novel tall fescue endophyte that improves the ability of tall fescue pastures to handle pest attack and moisture stress. MaxP® endophyte offers improved persistence compared to tall fescue without endophyte. In areas with insect pests, trials consistently show significant yield and persistence advantages from using tall fescues with MaxP® endophyte.

The role and importance of endophytes are now becoming more recognised.

The Hummer fescue gives us more feed through summer than any ryegrass…it’s a lot softer than the older fescues and the cows will eat it no worries…Luke Nicholls, Pearsondale, Gippsland VIC

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Aver

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Summer Active Fescue Trials Results

Hummer Max P0

4000

8000

12000

Quantum II Max P Advance Max P Demeter Festival Jesup Max P FinesseQ

Autumn

Summer

Spring

Winter

Six trials including 2006, 2007, 2008, 2012 Ballarat VIC, 2010 Orange NSW, 2011 Terang VICLDS5 = 1600 kgCV = 6%

ManagementEstablishment

Best establishment of Hummer is achieved by placing seed into firm and moist soil and covering with 10-15 mm of soil. The use of fertiliser at sowing improves establishment of the tall fescue without affecting the clover establishment. A further application of fertiliser (Nitrogen based) is recommended to be applied within the first 6 months after sowing to promote healthy tillering plants, reducing weed invasion.

Tall fescue can be slower than ryegrass to establish and seedlings can be pulled out if grazed too early. Once established tall fescue pastures should be kept relatively short (2 to 3 leaf stage) to maintain pasture quality. During September to November plants will grow rapidly and will try to develop a thick stem and seed head. Preventing the stem developing through frequent grazing will give you quality pasture over late spring and summer that is very leafy and easy to maintain. Management of quickly growing Hummer over spring can include quicker grazing rotations to mechanical harvesting such as silage and or hay removal.

Owen and Kaylene Pedlow run Highland Court Angus Stud, turning off 50 bulls and 400 feeder steers at 480-540 kg each year from a number of properties

across the New England. At their Glen Innes property, they have been monitoring Hummer for the past four years.

“The Hummer pasture strip is highly productive when it rains, but it has also held on well through the droughts we have had in the past couple of years,…We won’t sow anything other than Hummer in our pastures now, until there’s something proven to be better. It’s softer and more palatable, so the cattle graze the Hummer more heavily than the rest of the paddock. Usually with test strips, you have to mark them and after a while you can’t see the difference. We can still see where the Hummer is growing four years down the track – it’s clearly better than the other fescues we used.”

Results will vary depending on all the circumstances. Agricom provides no assurances, guarantees or warranties other than those that must be provided by law. To the extent permitted by law Agricom excludes all liability, and has no liability, however arising. © Agricom, 2015

Find out more visit www.agricom.com.au/hummer

Stephen Pasture Seeds VIC, SA, TAS 03 5335 8055 stephenpastureseeds.com.au

AusWest Seeds NSW, QLD 1800 224 987 auswestseeds.com.au

SEEDS

Hummer tall fescue is available from quality seed retailers, for more information on Hummer talk to your local distributor:

The Hummer pasture strip is highly productive when it rains, but it has also held on well through the droughtsOwen and Kaylene Pedlow Highland Court Angus Stud

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