High demand by graziers for Queensland Bluegrass seed to enhance the quality of their pasture for livestock has prices at around $46/kg.
At Northside Produce in Bundaberg, owner Brian Gordon said the seed continued to be very popular with graziers who wanted to improve pasture quality for cattle.
A qualified agronomist, Mr Gordon said Queensland Bluegrass, "was a tried and proven performer" in their region which extended to Miriam Vale in the north and Biggenden in the south.
"We have had an excellent growing season in this region," Mr Gordon said.
"The value of the exceptional growing season for the environment means Queensland Bluegrass has done extremely well and graziers are growing it to improve their permanent pasture."
Mr Gordon said the the Bluegrass seed's many positives outweighed its vulnerability to dieback.
"While it does have the disadvantage to be the first variety down when pasture dieback arrived, it's fantastic feed for cattle growth and has a great palatability value," he said.
"The price is up from where it was 12 months ago, it's a commodity which rises and falls with demand, it's a living thing so availability fluctuates as weather changes.
"Currently, there's good supply, we get all of ours locally, it's all Australian-grown."
The sowing and planting rates for the seed as a single species are around 2kg to 4kgkg/ha for bare seed and 6kg to 12 kg/ha for coated seed, depending on seed coat weight.
This means for every 100ha of pasture a producer wanted to improve it would cost around $4600 depending on how closely the seed was sowed and any competitive grasses and weeds already in the ground as well as moisture and and other paddock variables.
At Inglewood, Wilshire & Co agronomist Pete Rickard said while he appreciated the qualities of Creeping Bluegrass, there were other pasture seeds more suitable in his region.
"We use a lot of Rhodes grass and Premier Digit which are more suited to the soil to grow pasture in this region," he said.
"The area ranges from west of Goondiwindi, north to Millmerran, east to Mingoola and south to Bonshaw."
Mr Rickard said it was a matter of choosing he most suitable pasture mix to suit the client's soil, livestock and economic needs.
"Bluegrass is a good pasture but I don't use it in many mixtures as it's expensive, if it's $1150 for 25kg that's $46 per kg," he said.
"Rhodes and Premier cost around $12 and $20-something a kg respectively, plus they are much better suited to the soil in this area."
Mr Rickard said the recent wet weather had given the pasture mix he had put in a boost.
"I have put some Creeping Bluegrass in pastures, it's scattered across the paddock and it is starting to grow now."
However one Queensland seed producer who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he expected quality Bluegrass seed prices to escalate in the next 12 months.
The producer said he believed farmgate prices would increase due to the "complexity involved in growing and harvesting the see, combined with low tonnage per hectare and rising demand".
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