Product Used: Moby Forage Barley
Forage barley has become an integral part of the dairy feed system on the Harrigan Farming Co enterprise at Nobby on the central Darling Downs in Queensland. Jamie Harrigan said they traditionally used forage oat varieties on the property but introduced forage barley as an option four years ago. This season Moby forage barley was planted for the first time and impressed with its performance alongside forage oats. “The barley was a little bit quicker at the start,” Mr Harrigan said. He said the Moby grew rapidly and soon produced a bulk of feed. There were no disease issues throughout the year and the barley was strip grazed in conjunction with the oats throughout the winter and spring period. Mr Harrigan said 300 milking cows grazed a strip of forage cereal each day and were milking well on both barley and oats. The forages on the property are grown under dryland conditions and a crop is planted every time there is a decent rainfall event.
Forage cereals were planted in March, April and May and an oat crop was also sown on the property in September. Some 50 hectares of Outback oats were planted in early September at a time when the option was between oats and forage sorghum. Mr Harrigan said it was not normal practice to plant oats that late in the season, however the cooler condition meant it was a better option than sorghum at that stage. He said the Outback oats performed very well and was chest height in late November producing a bulk of feed. The Outback oats had also been planted earlier in the season but were wiped out by excessive rainfall shortly after sowing. Replacement seed, which was sown in September, was claimed under the Seed Distributors Establishment Guarantee program. Under the program the Outback oats were replaced at half the original purchase price because they failed to establish satisfactorily in the first thirty days.
Jamie and Brett Harrigan, Nobby QLD
