Product Used: Outback Forage Oats
Outback forage oats have showed their potential under very different seasonal conditions on the property of Ashley Lush, at Gunnedah, in northern New South Wales. Mr Lush said he first planted Outback oats in 2010 in an excellent season. “It did really well in a really good year,” Mr Lush said. “It was good for grazing with big broad leaves. We grazed it right through as the moisture held.” In contrast, the 2011 season was completely different with very little rainfall recorded in the growing season. The Outback oats were planted in June with one area sown into the oats crops from the previous year and the other area double-cropped into a freshly harvested sunflower paddock. “There were two to three months where there was not a lot of rainfall at all,” he said.
Some areas were grazed, although the majority of cattle had been sent off to Queensland for agistment because of the very dry conditions. “By all rights we should have grazed it and then got rid of it,” Mr Lush said. He said the Outback oats performed well by hanging in there and then taking advantage of the rainfall which fell at the end of September and in the months that followed. The crop was still green going into December and was even able to utilise a substantial rainfall event which took place in late November. Mr Lush said the Outback oats had been grown on the property in two years that were at opposite ends of the spectrum. He said the oats performed as expected under the excellent conditions of 2010, and they also showed good stress tolerance and an ability to hang in there during the tough season of 2011. “We’ve had both extremes in two years.”
Ashley Lush, Gunnedah NSW
