Crop Delay Creates Challenges
As you probably already know, Oregon seed crops are nearly 3 weeks late, causing many challenges. Here’s an update on the situation:
- Annual ryegrass shipments are delayed. In a normal year, Oregon seed companies are well under way shipping annual ryegrass in July. This year, we are just getting started, which means almost all orders are yet to be shipped, not to mention new orders. With virtually no carryover and the crop delay, demand on growers, cleaners and shippers is extremely high. Also, some farmers have only recently begun harvesting their annual ryegrass, as windrows are still too wet; now wheat is ready to harvest and some growers are harvesting it ahead of their ryegrass.
- Oregon seed producers are also currently cleaning orchardgrass, tall fescue, turnips, and crimson clover. Demand for these inventories is high as well, adding more pressure to all involved. Next to be harvested and cleaned will be perennial ryegrass, peas, white and red clovers, and other forage crops such as radish.
- Prompt orders are difficult to fill as quickly as desired, especially if all or part of the order includes annual ryegrass, crimson, peas, orchardgrass, or tall fescue.
- Shipping pressure will limit negotiation power on both seed price and freight prices. We are already seeing availability challenges and 36%+ fuel surcharges.
WE SUGGEST that you try to account for delays and be careful to not over-promise your customers. For our part, we are committed to doing our best in servicing you. Thank you in advance for your patience!
Titan Rx Makes The Grade in the Shade!
There are multiple reasons to get excited about our new Titan Rx tall fescue. One of them is how well it performs in the shade. Titan Rx was #1 for shade tolerance in the 2009 NTEP. Learn more about this valuable characteristic, as well as Titan Rx’s impressive heat tolerance, self repairing ability, and disease resistance at www.TitanFescue.com.
Turf Quality Under Shade
Carbondale, IL
|2009
| Variety | Quality |
|---|---|
| Titan Rx (#1) | 8.1 |
| Rebel IV | 7.6 |
| Shenandoah III | 7.3 |
| KY-31 | 7.2 |
| Falcon V | 5.1 |
| LS 1200 | 2.3 |
| lsd | 1.8 |
Speaking of Shade
Karl Danneberger, of The Ohio State University, has put together some valuable information about how shade affects turfgrass. One interesting note from his finding is that “in the shade, we see a change in growth habit - the plants are more stemmy and upright, and the leaf blades are thinner with less tillering.” This is even true with mowing heights. While there are good reasons to sometimes increase mowing height, “at higher heights, mores shading occurs, discouraging tillering and shorter growth.”
SIDE NOTE: One has to wonder if Titan Rx’s natural ability to produce rhizomes and aggressive tillers is one of the reasons why it performs better in the shade than some other varieties!
Read more about Karl’s work at golfdom.com under “A Picture Worth a Thousand Words”.
Great Reasons for Growing Clover
Reason #4 - Increased Forage Yield
“The total yield of forage per acre from grass/legume mixtures is usually increased over grass alone. For example, studies conducted over many years at the University of Kentucky have shown that red clover grown with tall fescue produces more total yield than tall fescue fertilized with 180 lb./N/acre.”
From “Ten Great Reasons for Growing Clover” www.wvu.edu/~agexten/forglvst/clover.pdf
