grass seed mixes

valtra2

hi i was just wondering about getting a grass seed mix just wondering who is the best company to talk to the mixes grass seeds, thank you

agriman27

My local co-op stocks drummonds grass seed seem to sell well. HF seeds a supposed to be very good also. What is the seed for silage or grazing or dual purpose. Keep an eye on the departments of agri recommend lists and compare always a good guide on the mix contents

adne

I see you can order it online with seeddirect.ie not sure if its better value

F.D

Just wondering how you got on valtra2
we need to sow a good bit over the next few weeks so i could do with knowing which is the better companies / varietys to grow
so far locally there is Acorn seeds which lists the varieties included in there mix and show the department recommended list on the back of there brochure to compare
There is tipperary grass by agritech but they dont list what varieties is in there mix at all,
another thing i noticed is a lot of these mixes have a clover content in them which will make spraying for weeds afterwards a costly job to get clover safe sprays
Anyone got any suggestions on which company to use for seed??

delaval

Whatever you do, do not buy seeds on price but rather on variety. Only choose varieties suited to your needs. They're some super seeds on the market now.

loveta

delaval wrote: »

Whatever you do, do not buy seeds on price but rather on variety. Only choose varieties suited to your needs. They're some super seeds on the market now.

Would you buy with clover in it or get ones without it? because as far as i am aware it is expensive and if someone was going to be going the intensive route would the money not be better spent on top quality grass variety s instead

mf240

loveta wrote: »

Would you buy with clover in it or get ones without it? because as far as i am aware it is expensive and if someone was going to be going the intensive route would the money not be better spent on top quality grass variety s instead

I don't think clover has anything to offer in a heavily stocked farm.
Just my opion.

Viewtodiefor

valtra2 wrote: »

hi i was just wondering about getting a grass seed mix just wondering who is the best company to talk to the mixes grass seeds, thank you

Anyone use glanbia's hill mix?

td5man

What variety of seeds are best for intensive silage with a spring/autumn grazing.
Teagasc man at farm walk was saying late heading variety with no clover and 2-3 varieties of grass and to get it mixed ie. not ready mixed off the shelf.
I have 25 acres to do this year 15 after 2nd cut direct drilled and 10 after wholecrop roundup and powerharrow.

PatQfarmer

mf240 wrote: »

I don't think clover has anything to offer in a heavily stocked farm.
Just my opion.

Coming to same conclusion here.
Last year was a disaster as it never got warm enough for the clover to act.
This year, I used more fertiliser on usual poorer performing fields with no clover and less on last years reseed with lots of clover. All grew 100kg+ per day since end April, but there seemed to be more "eating" in the non-clover fields.
Then again, I could be entirely wrong.
Fertiliser cost is a big issue for beef enterprise, but clover not reliable enough if stocked close to limits.

F.D

I sowed the Acorn Peaty mix in the heavy land and the gold tooth blend on the better ground
both contained 0.5 kg of clover per 11.5 kg bag, picked these mixed based on the seed varieties used and the way they scored on the dept list
time will tell how they perform, i'm not overly stocked yet so if the clover does its job and saves me some fertilizer for now i will be happy enough

just do it

td5man wrote: »

What variety of seeds are best for intensive silage with a spring/autumn grazing.

What conclusion have you come to? Just the question I was going to ask;)

td5man

just do it wrote: »

What conclusion have you come to? Just the question I was going to ask;)

Tyrella would be one not decided what else yet.

Sami23

Have a field that I want to reseed next month. It's a lowlying field that was drained about 30 years ago with shores piped into rivers. It's black Peaty soil and now is probably the driest field on the farm. Last year I reseeded the field beside it that was never drained which gets wet easily during any sort of bad weather. I used a Peaty mix grassseed (for difficult soils) and it has worked out very well.
My question is should I use the same mix (peaty) in the 'dry' field as it is recommeneded for peaty soils or because the field is perfectly dry should I treat it as a normal field and use a normal grazing grass seed mix ?
The field will be for grazing only, no silage cutting. Thanks

RobinBanks

td5man wrote: »

Tyrella would be one not decided what else yet.

Add a bit of Abergain and Drumbo or Mezquita and bobs your uncle

bob charles

RobinBanks wrote: »

bobs your uncle

As long as your not saying 'bobs your father' :D

RobinBanks

bob charles wrote: »

As long as your not saying 'bobs your father' :D

td5man

RobinBanks wrote: »

Add a bit of Abergain and Drumbo or Mezquita and bobs your uncle

Didn't think he was old enough ;-)

bob charles

td5man wrote: »

Didn't think he was old enough ;-)

I am an uncle , god help them though. Im meeting her for the first time next thursday:)

td5man

bob charles wrote: »

I am a daddy , god help them though. Im meeting her for the first time next thursday:)

:-)

funny man

td5man wrote: »

Tyrella would be one not decided what else yet.

Tyrella seriously over-rated.

td5man

funny man wrote: »

Tyrella seriously over-rated.

are you speaking from experience ,why do you think its over rated

Sami23

Sami23 wrote: »

Have a field that I want to reseed next month. It's a lowlying field that was drained about 30 years ago with shores piped into rivers. It's black Peaty soil and now is probably the driest field on the farm. Last year I reseeded the field beside it that was never drained which gets wet easily during any sort of bad weather. I used a Peaty mix grassseed (for difficult soils) and it has worked out very well.
My question is should I use the same mix (peaty) in the 'dry' field as it is recommeneded for peaty soils or because the field is perfectly dry should I treat it as a normal field and use a normal grazing grass seed mix ?
The field will be for grazing only, no silage cutting. Thanks

Anyone with any opinions on this ?

restive

If it's the driest field on the farm then i would not use a peaty grass seed mix. Do you intend to put nitrogen on the field?

Sami23

restive wrote: »

If it's the driest field on the farm then i would use a peaty grass seed mix. Do you intend to put nitrogen on the field?

Probably would only use 18-6-12 on this field for grazing. Why I'm wondering about the Peaty Mix is that I thought it was geared towards 'wet peaty land' and seen as mine is dry would the mix be what I need ?

restive

Sorry corrected above. Is the soil itself actually boggy or is it normal clay that was simply wet?

Sami23

restive wrote: »

Sorry corrected above. Is the soil itself actually boggy or is it normal clay that was simply wet?

Soil is pure black that would have been boggy before being drained. Probably only 10-14 inches of black clay before you hit the 'white stuff'

restive

I am no expert on this but if you intend not to use a "peaty Mix", I would imagine a lot of lime is required.

Maybe someone else who has experience of this could chime in.

patjack

Sami23 wrote: »

Anyone with any opinions on this ?

Would you try a hybrid grass mixture, would be resilant I think? Seen a difficult field not quite peaty but not far off, sown with a hybrid ryegrass mix, it seems to work well in this field. It takes the cutting well and recovers quickly. It doesn't look as well as some of the leafier mixes but in this scenario it seems fit for purpose. Before I knew what the grass seed mix I thought it had a problem with crowsfoot, I have three field myseld and if I had the money I'd plough in the morning and throw in a similar mix. It's been sown a few years now, gets a cutting every year and doesn't show any weeds. In these type soils I generally have problems with moss, buttercups and rushes. I am not sure if they limed when reseeding, if so this be some of the reason the weeds above are not reappearing.

td5man

What would your opinion be on these
for grazing;

3kgs aberchoice
3.5kgs abergain
2kgs tyrella
2.5kgs drumbo

Cut&graze;

2.5kgs majestic
2.5kgs tyrella
3.5kgs kintyre
2.5kgs glenveagh

td5man

td5man wrote: »

What would your opinion be on these
for grazing;

3kgs aberchoice
3.5kgs abergain
2kgs tyrella
2.5kgs drumbo

Cut&graze;

A
2.5kgs majestic
2.5kgs tyrella
3.5kgs kintyre
2.5kgs glenveagh

Anyone :-\

just do it

td5man wrote: »

Anyone :-\

Can't comment on the mixes but would think 11kg/ac is low. I was considering 14 kg

delaval

td5man wrote: »

Anyone :-\

Two perfect mix's i would go at 15kg/acre

RobinBanks

td5man wrote: »

Anyone :-\

Very good grazing mix. I prefer to use all Diploids with a high ground cover score in grazing ground but allot of my land is heavy. If you are on free draining soils then thats the perfect grazing mix.

Out of interest, where to you plan to get this mixed? I dont know of any merchant that has that specific mix on the on the shelf

td5man

Ground here would fairly free draining, lakeland dairies have those two mixes both of them have 0.75 kg of white clover in them as well but i dont think id bother with the clover.

funny man

Looks like Lakeland LFS grazing and cut n graze without the clover.
both mixes are good with all good variaties. i would go with a two way mix of tetra 40% dip 60%, and the best on the market are Abergain (T) and Aberchoice followed by Kintyre (T) and Drumbo

funny man

restive wrote: »

I am no expert on this but if you intend not to use a "peaty Mix", I would imagine a lot of lime is required.

Maybe someone else who has experience of this could chime in.

i'd imagine the opposite.

funny man

Sami23 wrote: »

Have a field that I want to reseed next month. It's a lowlying field that was drained about 30 years ago with shores piped into rivers. It's black Peaty soil and now is probably the driest field on the farm. Last year I reseeded the field beside it that was never drained which gets wet easily during any sort of bad weather. I used a Peaty mix grassseed (for difficult soils) and it has worked out very well.
My question is should I use the same mix (peaty) in the 'dry' field as it is recommeneded for peaty soils or because the field is perfectly dry should I treat it as a normal field and use a normal grazing grass seed mix ?
The field will be for grazing only, no silage cutting. Thanks

just use the best diploid grasses available, a peaty mix may or may not contain them.

funny man

funny man wrote: »

Tyrella seriously over-rated.

Tyrella has a serious spring growth but after that all other scores average.

Harrier1980

td5man wrote: »

Anyone :-\

Why no clover? And I don't like the 4 way mix! If one was to fall out of bed to to whatever reason; crown rust, fuz etc... That's 25% of your sward gone! A mixture of different varieties is important! The main general purpose mixture I use has 14 different varieties and a clover blend plus the seed is treated with a bacteria and seaweed extract for fast establishment!

Also to an earlier question on heavy peaty land, if it is persistency you are after then consider including 8% Timothy and meadow fescue.

If you look at the LSD's on the recommended list the differences between the varieties are tiny in a lot of the cases! And the data for total digestability DNDF etc are almost more important to consider than just out and out yield!

td5man

Harrier1980 wrote: »

Why no clover? And I don't like the 4 way mix! If one was to fall out of bed to to whatever reason; crown rust, fuz etc... That's 25% of your sward gone! A mixture of different varieties is important! The main general purpose mixture I use has 14 different varieties and a clover blend plus the seed is treated with a bacteria and seaweed extract for fast establishment!

Also to an earlier question on heavy peaty land, if it is persistency you are after then consider including 8% Timothy and meadow fescue.

If you look at the LSD's on the recommended list the differences between the varieties are tiny in a lot of the cases! And the data for total digestability DNDF etc are almost more important to consider than just out and out yield!

Teagasc adviser says clover is a waste of money in an intensive system.

just do it

Harrier1980 wrote: »

The main general purpose mixture I use has 14 different varieties and a clover blend

How many of those 14 varieties do you think take hold? Surely there is too much competition between them for all of them to establish?

Harrier1980

just do it wrote: »

How many of those 14 varieties do you think take hold? Surely there is too much competition between them for all of them to establish?

I would expect all of them to take! The varieties are from a wide range of sources which will give diversity in there performance so some will thrive a different parts of the year, weather etc.

funny man

Harrier1980 wrote: »

I would expect all of them to take! The varieties are from a wide range of sources which will give diversity in there performance so some will thrive a different parts of the year, weather etc.

How many tonnes per Hectare are you growing with that mix?

delaval

funny man wrote: »

How many tonnes per Hectare are you growing with that mix?

6-7

munkus

No expert but 14 varieties sounds crazy, I would have said that over 4 was mad. For the first time I bought the seed online there a few weeks back. I used seeddirect.ie. Rang Jim there first and told him what kind of land it was and that i wanted 1 good cut of silage and good all year round grazing.

the Mix was 15kg per acre of

Tyrella
Delphin
Cancan
Portstewart
and 2 different clovers

You may have your own opinion on what's the best mix but at least here you can pick and choose yourself.

Harrier1980

15kg to the acre! It's a proven mixture in terms of its make up of intermediates, lates, tetrapods and diploid only the varieties themselves have moved on with time and has been used in Ireland and UK since the 70's. A lot of concepts have been thrown around Ireland in the last few decades it's not so long ago teagasc were all about diploids and would not reccomend tetrapods, in the last year or two they have gone full circle on this! Recent again if you weren't trying to farm a new Zealand system you were at nothing! Thank god people are starting to realise Ireland is not new Zealand! Mixtures used to contain a large blend and also with thinks like Timothy, meadow fescue etc. but this fell out of "trend" not because of poor practice but simply fashion! The four way mixtures I hear people complaining about these days have no level of persistsncy! I have my beliefs and reasons for such but everyone to there own I guess!

agriman27

How does Timothy really perform in comparison to diploids. I notice it heads very early in growing season. Would a mix with high Timothy provide a really good sod. Just curious as I farm heavy land and haven't any experience of reseeding yet

Harrier1980

Timothy is included because it helps a sward stand up to the mower and help with lodging when it gets strong also helps with ground cover and has a sweet smell when fed. It will never compare to a perennial in terms of yield but I have it included for the above reasons

funny man

Harrier1980 wrote: »

15kg to the acre! It's a proven mixture in terms of its make up of intermediates, lates, tetrapods and diploid only the varieties themselves have moved on with time and has been used in Ireland and UK since the 70's. A lot of concepts have been thrown around Ireland in the last few decades it's not so long ago teagasc were all about diploids and would not reccomend tetrapods, in the last year or two they have gone full circle on this! Recent again if you weren't trying to farm a new Zealand system you were at nothing! Thank god people are starting to realise Ireland is not new Zealand! Mixtures used to contain a large blend and also with thinks like Timothy, meadow fescue etc. but this fell out of "trend" not because of poor practice but simply fashion! The four way mixtures I hear people complaining about these days have no level of persistsncy! I have my beliefs and reasons for such but everyone to there own I guess!

proven where and for what ; yield/ ground cover/ water soluable carbohydrate?

you'll find this "trend" was driven by economics of growing more grass.

Harrier1980

funny man wrote: »

proven where and for what ; yield/ ground cover/ water soluable carbohydrate?

you'll find this "trend" was driven by economics of growing more grass.

Grown sucessfully in Ireland and UK for 40+ years. When you ask about yield/ ground cover WSC are you referring to individual varieties or a mixture as a whole cause your asking a lot of questions there!

Agreed maybe the word trend was hasty. The need for growing more grass we all understand and we need to be efficient in how we do this. Digestable neutral Detergent fibre and cell wall digestability can vary a lot between varieties check some of the research from NIAB. Where the yield of one variety may be down the list it may be up in DNDF and CWD and in this instance it is important to have a mixture of varieties that will provide for all the sward needs, ground cover digestability WSC yield etc.. F you look into it deep enough it's far more complex than putting the four varieties that yield the best on a reccomended list; hence the word efficiency I used earlier! And unfortunately a lot of the time if you showed a mixture as complicated at that is few will actually understand the reasoning behind it. As I said earlier each to there own and we are all grown p and can make up our own minds.