Product Used: Moby Forage Barley
Moby forage barley has provided outstanding hay yields over the past two seasons on the NSW University property at Wellington, in NSW, which is managed by a local high school. Farm assistant, Robert Anderson, who also has a property near Wellington, said Moby barley and oats were planted to a 28 acre area last season and 290 large round bales were produced from the area.
He said the barley averaged 12 bales per acre compared to the oats at 9 bales per acre.“The extra height of Moby this year certainly gave it a boost,” he said. “Moby was 40 to 50cms taller. The hay quality was very high even in the dense stands due to stem thickness and I’ve had no lodging at all.”Hay was sold directly out of the paddock with the barley and oaten options commanding the same price. Mr Anderson said most of the buyers were used to oaten hay and were pleasantly surprised when they looked at the Moby barley alternative.
“They all looked at the barley and said it all looked like good hay.” Both crops were planted in June purely as hay options, with a seeding rate of 60 kilograms per hectare. DAP at 60 kilograms per hectare was also applied. Mr Anderson said in future seasons they would look at putting Moby barley in earlier in the season and using it as a grazing option for stock before locking it up for hay. “By putting it in earlier we get a double bite of the cherry.”
Moby forage barley has also been grown on the Anderson property and provided good feed for sheep. “Moby gets out of the ground fast and recovers very well from grazing,” Mr Anderson said. He said Moby will be grown again in the future on his own property and at the school farm and represents an excellent partner with oats.
Robert Anderson, of Wellington, NSW in Moby barley that produced high yields of quality hay.
