Silage and hay producers for over 30 years, the Forsyth family used to grow L55 and L56 lucerne. After being impressed by the performance of Silver Lucernes in trials, they’ve grown Silverosa GT 7 and Silverado 9 for about 10 years and, more recently, SilverLand GT 5. SilverSky 11 has also been outstanding in recent trials.
According to Brad Forsyth: “We have over 100ha of Silverosa GT 7 and Silverado 9 under centre pivots. Both varieties have excellent leaf:stem ratio and hold their leaf if cutting is delayed, where other varieties lose their leaf. I’ve found them both to be very persistent and generally we get 9-10 cuts per year.
“Over three years, the UMS lucernes have averaged annual yields of 23.4 t/ha DM (Silverado 9), and 20.7 t/ha DM (Silverosa GT 7), with excellent hay quality because of no real effects from pests or diseases and a high leaf:stem ratio. My Silver Lucernes have year-round growth and are the best performers ever!”