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Winter Legumes offer a range of advantages in your rotation from offering feed, hay and silage options to being key components in mixes and being used to address nitrogen issues in your soil. We can work with you to find where you might take advantage of peas and vetch to improve your paddock.
Field peas are a hard winter legume and are one of the oldest domesticated crops,cultivated for at least 7,000 years. They are now grown in many countries for both human consumption and stockfeed. There are several cultivars and colours of peas, including blue, dun (brown), maple and white. Peas are a climbing annual legume with weak, viney and relatively succulent stems. Vines are often 1.2 to 1.5 metres long but when alone, field pea’s weak stems prevent it from growing more than 40- 60cms tall. Leaves have two leaflets and a tendril. Flowers are white, pink or purple. The root system is relatively shallow and small, but well nodulated.
Seed Count: 5,800/kg
Sowing Rate: 80-1250kg/Ha
300mm+
Silage
Grain
Suited to silage with many different cultivars available. Differences in cultivars can be found in their range of disease resistance, yield potential, flowering dates and suitability for grain or plant dry matter production. Dun or Kaspa type peas feature in our FArmour Cool Cover as well as TARGET Mega Silage.
350mm+
Forage & Grain
Manure Crop
Common vetch is a winter-active annual legume usually added to oats or cereals to increase dry matter production and to improve feed quality for grazing or hay. Sown alone, vetch can provide a high protein hay yield or it may be used as a green manure crop, providing nitrogen for following crops and breaking disease cycles.
Seed Count: 25,000-50,000/kg
Sowing Rate: 15-30kg/Ha in mixes, 20-30kg alone
400mm+
Grazing and Hay
Manure Crop
Purple vetch is an annual legume native to Southern Europe generally grown as a green manure crop or mixed with oats to produce hay. Purple vetch does not respond well after grazing and is 100% soft seeded.
Seed Count: 22,000/kg
Sowing Rate: 15-40kg/Ha alone, 20-30kg in mixes
500mm+
Grazing and Hay
Long Season
Benetas Vetch was developed by Tasglobal Seeds. It is capable of producing high forage yields and has good early spring vigour. Benatas is later flowering than Popany. Its cold tolerance during vegetative growth is improved. It is also tolerant of moderate waterlogging. Benetas Vetch features in our Target Oat & Vetch and FArmour HDL blends
Gippsland, Yarra Valley, SW Vic, & Lower SE SA
0409 776 126
rhys.cs@agfseeds.com.au
Northern NSW & Queensland
0499 456 263
will.bazley@agfseeds.com.au
Victorian Mallee & South Australia
0448 863 169
craig.altmann@agfseeds.com.au
South East NSW & North East Victoria
0491 219 291
cooper.lambden@agfseeds.com.au
SW Vic, Central Vic, SE South Australia, Murray NSW & Tasmania
0497 432 157
ivan.pyke@agfseeds.com.au
NOTICE: Although the information and recommendations in this guide are presented in good faith and believed to be correct, AGF Seeds Pty. Ltd. makes no representations or warranties as to the completeness or accuracy of Information. Information is supplied upon the condition that the persons receiving same will make their own determination as to its suitability for their purposes prior to use. In no event will AGF Seeds Pty. Ltd. be responsible for any damages or loss of any nature whatsoever resulting from the use of or reliance upon Information supplied in this guide.