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Mixture Quality Successful mixture design is based on sound agricultural experience, along with the technical knowledge of how species and varieties inter act under the different growing conditions that they will face. Combining mixture components correctly is a skill which comes from years of experience, trial data from the largest grass and clover testing facility in the UK at DLF Hailes Farm in Gloucestershire and the DLF Ireland trial site in Waterford, and the varieties performances on SRUC, AHDB and Teagasc recommended lists. DLF seed scientists and plant breeders are at the cutting edge of species and cultivar development. Working right across the world the advances achieved by this huge investment in research has given HF Seeds the outstanding performance that you have come to expect from our mixtures. In particular the recent developments in digestible fibre (fibre converting into lignin slower than normal) and the newer work on breeding deeper rooted grasses – highlighted on the next page, are major plant breeding success stories, which leads to greater animal output per acre. HF Seeds have brought you mixtures that perform across all regions of the UK and Ireland for over 60 years and are rightly considered to be simply the best. Species UK Minimum Germination HF Minimum Germination HF Average 2023 Germination HF Average 2023 Purity Italian Ryegrass Perennial Ryegrass Timothy 75.0% 80.0% 80.0% 90.0% 90.0% 90.0% 95.0% 92.0% 92.0% 99.3% 99.1% 98.7% Germination There is a minimum germination for all certified seed used in the UK, but these standards are actually quite low. HF Seed varieties are selected from our own seed stocks that are at least 10% higher germination than the UK certification minimum standard. More live seeds in every bag is very important in producing dense, long lasting swards. Purity UK grass seed certification also allows the possibility of the presence of relatively high levels of serious grassland weeds. At HF Seeds we impose our own freedom from weeds standards, which are unequalled elsewhere. This table shows the potential number of weed seeds which could be sown (per acre) each time a field is reseeded. The advantages of HF Seeds rigorous purity standards are easy to see. Possible Weed Seed Numbers per acre Docks Couch Blackgrass UK Minimum Purity Standard 1,250 30,000 25,000 HF Minimum Purity Standard 0 2,500 2,500 04
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Forage Quality Dairy and beef herds perform better when their forage is highly digestible and the protein content is high. Our top quality grasses improve nutritional intake and boost milk or meat yields. It is the surest way to maximise output without increasing input costs. DLF Seeds use modern genetic techniques to look at the DNA code of potential new varieties so that we can improve several different traits at the same time. The most important of these new breeders tools is the ability to select grass plants on the increased digestibility of their fibre, (digestible Neutral Detergent Fibre or dNDF) leading to more metabolisable energy (ME) being extracted from every kilogram of dry matter consumed. Ruminant animals chew the cud to extract the maximum feed value they can from long fibre sources – DLF breeding just makes this a lot easier for them. Agaska Nifty Boyne Diwan Convey Bowie Cancan Swan Thegn Twymax Nashota Fojtan HF FIBER ENERGY VARIETIES FOR 2024 Intermediate Perennial Ryegrass Intermediate Perennial Ryegrass Intermediate Perennial Ryegrass Intermediate Perennial Ryegrass Intermediate Perennial Ryegrass Late Perennial Ryegrass Late Perennial Ryegrass Late Perennial Ryegrass Late Perennial Ryegrass Late Perennial Ryegrass Late Perennial Ryegrass Tall Fescue PLUS™ Diploid Diploid Diploid Tetraploid Tetraploid Diploid Diploid Diploid Tetraploid Tetraploid Tetraploid Festulolium Grass Seed Root Development Research Grass plants that establish faster and have deeper roots gives us great benefits in being able to harvest all the available nutrients in a soil profile and to give farmers faster, more resilient grass swards. The DLF RadiMax testing facility at Copenhagen University allows us to select the new cultivars that perform best when nutrients are limited. These are the deeper rooting varieties which have greater root mass and can withstand more difficult growing conditions. DLF RadiMax www.bit.ly/DLF-PLUS HF SEEDS SUPERIOR GRASS & FODDER CROPS 2024 05
