DSV’s range of forage options continues to grow reflecting the inclusion of more alternative crops in arable rotations and the demands of livestock producers for greater reliance on home-grown feeds, says the company’s UK managing director Mike Mann.
“The arable and livestock sectors continue to evolve and we are determined to introduce the best seed options for these as well as develop beneficial management approaches to take full advantage of them.
“In recent years, we’ve been best known for our hybrid oilseed rape but we’ve also introduced novel concepts such as the TerraLife cover crop mixes and this will accelerate in the future in line with the changing needs of growers.”
As an indication of this, the DSV maize portfolio now consists of four varieties with the two new names Joy and Likeit being introduced at Cereals 2017 to join Movanna and Petroschka.
“Joy is an ultra early forage maize with early harvesting offering the potential for oilseed rape to be grown directly afterwards making it a very good fit in arable rotations.
“It has a strong yield and good starch content with very quick early development and flowering making it ideal for very late sowings, too.”
Likeit was national listed this year and shows real potential in the early maturing category for maize, he adds. “It is suitable for both forage and grain with high dry matter yields and a high starch content.
“It is a very versatile variety which can be sown in any soil type or area and features exceptional early vigour. Excellent tolerance to disease with a particularly good eyespot score is backed up by good standing ability.”
With green manures and other organic strategies play an increasing part in crop rotations, DSV has also extended its TerraLife range of multi-species cover crop mixes.
“TerraLife gives growers the opportunity to achieve many different objectives including adding to soil fertility, improving soil structure and helping with weed control in arable rotations. In many situations they provide ideal grazing for livestock, as well.
“We’ve got some new mixes growing for the first time at Cereals this year with all including a variety of plant species designed to root and work at different depths to break up compaction pans and improve the health and fertility of soils.”
Visitors the DSV’s stand will also be able to learn about Gorilla – DSV’s new forage rape, Mike Mann adds.
“Gorilla is a dark purple green, re-growing forage rape that is slightly shorter than many current varieties and offers good standing ability and higher than average dry matter content which leads to high total dry matter yields.
“This means livestock take in more energy per kg digested and are likely to thrive better than on conventional forage rape varieties.”
Gorilla also shows a moderately good resistance to powdery mildew and is quite resistant to clubroot, he points out.
