Lucerne

Lucerne is a perennial legume species with an extended taproot that allows the plant access to water and nutrients deep in the soil profile and which gives it superior drought tolerance in comparison to grass pastures in lower rainfall areas.

Lucerne is a multi-purpose plant that can either be grazed or conserved as hay/silage for use during times of the year when pasture quality or diet protein levels are low. Lucerne has excellent stock acceptance and produces impressive yields of high quality feed.

What do you want to use your Lucerne for?

Lucerne cultivars are selected by their dormancy ratings (these are shown as numbers: 1-10) so your choice of cultivar will depend on whether you are after a winter active, semi-winter active or winter dormant Lucerne (Under this system “1” is the most winter dormant and “10” is the most winter active).

Cultivars:

Kaituna: Kaituna Lucerne is a New Zealand developed Lucerne, selected for improved resistance to the range of pests and diseases in our environment. Kaituna Lucerne is ideal for grazing and mixed regimes and is persistent under grazing and hay/silage production. Kaituna Lucerne is highly productive in spring and summer, with later autumn and earlier spring growth than Wairau.

Dormancy: Number unknown described as semi-winter dormant

RGT Force 4: RGT Force 4™ comprises multi-stemmed plants with an upright growth habit. It maintains high numbers of leaves along its stems. RGT Force 4™ shows good early growth and long-term persistence and has excellent cold and drought tolerance.

Dormancy: 4

RGT 514QL: RGT514QL is a reliable, high-yielding forage option designed to perform across a wide range of farming systems. It offers outstanding forage quality, with an excellent leaf-to-stem ratio. The leaf runs from the top of the plant right down to the soil surface, where the protein is. This makes for impressive protein production per hectare and adds real value to every cut or graze.

With strong stand persistence and fast recovery after harvest, RGT 514QL supports good production throughout the growing season. Its resilience is backed by excellent pest and disease resistance, helping to maintain leaf health and long-term paddock productivity.

Dormancy: 5

RGT 714 QL: RGT 714QL is a semi-winter active variety that can be incorporated into most farming operations. Its soft stem ensures maximum quality and utilization. In suitable environments it can provide extended growth through the shoulders of the growing season and is a great addition to existing systems currently utilizing predominately semi-dormant types.

 Dormancy: 7

 RGT 914 QL: RGT 914QL is a new highly winter active Lucerne. It comes from the same breeder as 914QL but was selected for increased winter activity with similar high leaf to stem ratio and improved persistence over many older activity 9 and 10 varieties.

It is well suited to both hay producers looking for an extra one or two cuts per year, or for livestock producers wanting more winter production in a highly winter active Lucerne with improved persistence.

Dormancy: 9

Q31: Q31 is a dual-purpose grazing and cutting, more winter dormant lucerne best suited to the cooler parts of New Zealand. It has strong spring and summer seasonal production with excellent leaf retention and large leaf size. Q31 is finely stemmed and densely tillered producing high quality feed for all pastoral livestock types. Q31 has good tolerance to many of the common leaf and stem diseases and to the root and crown diseases that lucerne can be susceptible to.

Dormancy: 3

Stamina 5: Stamina 5 is a semi-dormant Lucerne with little winter growth but excellent yield and quality through the warmer months. It is the ultimate choice where a stand is required for prolonged periods of set-stocking.

Dormancy: 5

SW6330: SW6330 is a semi-winter active lucerne flexible for both cutting and grazing. Suited to most New Zealand regions it has strong spring to autumn dry matter production and is suitable for all livestock types. SW6330 produces very high-quality feed and has strong tolerance to many common lucerne pests and diseases.

Dormancy: 6

Titan 5: Titan is an exciting new lucerne variety combining a 50:50 cross between Medicago sativa lucerne (purple flower) and Medicago falcata (yellow flower) lucerne. Medicago falcata, regarded as a more resilient species of Medicago, is geographically distributed and originated in the cold and dry areas of Russia, Mongolia, Scandinavia, and China. It tends to be more drought/winter hardy compared with M. sativa. Therefore M. falcata is often considered as a potential parent in breeding (Riday et al. 2002). Often referred to as ‘Siberian lucerne’.

The introduction of unique M. falcata material provides the potential to add new diverse genetics to capture traits for persistence, drought tolerance and water use efficiency over traditional M. sativa varieties of similar dormancy. It is bred in Australia and is suitable to a range of climatic conditions.

Dormancy: 5

 Torlesse: Torlesse is a lucerne bred by AgResearch Grasslands. The breeding objective was to develop a winter dormant lucerne cultivar with high production and resistance to the main pests and diseases of lucerne. Approximately 150 cloned lucerne plants were screened for resistance to stem nematode and then undercrossed. This material was developed from eight lines that had previously been selected for resistance to blue-green aphid and then selected for superior agronomic features. Winter dormancy is essential for persistence in the colder lucerne growing areas of New Zealand. Torlesse has similar winter dormancy levels to Wairau with very high spring and summer production. Torlesse is dual-purpose; New Zealand bred lucerne suitable for hay or silage and grazing.

Dormancy: 4

55Q29: 54Q29 is a new, high yielding variety (slightly more winter dormant than 55Q27) with above-average forage quality. 54Q29 combines very good winter-hardiness with a superb pest and disease package including improved aphid resistance. Suitable for grazing, silage or hay.

Dormancy: 4

Lucerne Inoculant:

Lucerne seed should always be inoculated with Group AL Lucerne inoculant prior to planting. Fortifycote Lucerne, Lumigen and Superstrike coated Lucerne’s come pre-inoculated.Bare seed however, requires separate nodule inoculant to be purchased available in 250 gram (enough for 25 kgs or 1.25 kg (enough for 125 kgs) packets.

Please contact Specialty Seeds for all your Lucerne needs.

If you would like some more information on How to grow Lucerne and or on Lucerne Management please click here to go to our downloads page.
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Latest RAGT Lucernes looking good in trials.