CULTIVAR SELECTION

Species: Common name and scientific name.

Cultivar: Essential for selection purposes. Wide range of adaption to climate and soils.

Maturity: Return to What pasture legume? for more on Early, mid etc.

Soil texture: Self explaniary.

Hard seed at break of season: "Break of season" is the first good rain in autumn.

Species	Cultivar	Maturity	Soil texture	Hard seed - % at break of season.	Comments
BARREL MEDIC M. truncatula	Parabinga	Early	Sandy loam to loam	80 to 90	More recent cultivars with generally better insect resistance.
	Caliph	Early/mid	Loam to clays	85
	Sephi	Early/mid	Sandy loams to clay loams	75 to 85
	Jester	Mid	Sandy loams to clay loams	75 to 85
	Mogul	Mid	Loams to clays	70 to 80
	Paraggio	Mid	Sandy loams to clay loams	60 to 70
	Cyprus	Early	Loams to clays	80 to 90	Older cultivars with less insest resistance. They have been most productive in the WANA region and should not be rejected out of hand. If the seed is cheaper can be included in seed mixture to reduce costs.
	Hannaford	Mid	Sandy loams to loams	80 to 90
	Borung	Mid	Loams to clays	70 to 80
	Jemalong	Mid	Sandy loams to clay loams	75 to 85
DISC MEDIC M. tornata	Tornafield	Mid	Light sand	70 to 80	This is the classic medic species for sandy soils. Used effectively in Libya.
	Rivoli	Mid/late	Light sand	65 to 75
GAMA MEDIC M. rugosa	Paraponto	Early/mid	Loams to clay loams	40 to 50	Lower hard seed can be a problem. Erect growth habit makes it easier to cut for hay.
	Sapo	Early/mid	Loams to clay loams	30 to 40
	Paragosa	Early/mid	Loams to clay loams	30 to 40
HYBRID DISC MEDIC	Toreador	Early/mid	Sand to loam	70 to 85
MUREX MEDIC M. murex	Zodiac	Mid/late	Red-brown earths to cracking clays.	50 to 70	Will grow on acid soils with the coreect inoculum.
SNAIL MEDIC M. scutellata	Sava	Very early	Not suited to deep sandy soil.	75 to 85	Large pods and seeds make establishment easier. Large pods can also be eaten by sheep.
	Essex	Early/mid	Loams to clays	85 to 95
	Kelson	Early/mid	Loams to clays	80 to 90
	Silver	Early/mid	Sandy loams to clays	75 to 85
	Robinson	Very early	Loams to clays	80 to 90
SPHERE MEDIC M. sphaerocarpus	Orion	Mid	Range of soil types but not deep sand.	60 to 80	Will grow on acid soils but not as tolerant as Murex
SPINELESS BURR MEDIC M. polymorpha var brevspina	Serena	Very early	Loams to clay loams	75 to 85	Serena is an excellent short season medic that is adapted to the marginal zone and even the rangeland. Burr medic grows on slightly acid soils.
	Santiago	Early/mid	Loams to clay loams	80 to 90
	Circle Valley	Mid	Loams to clay loams	75 to 85
	Cavalier	Mid	Loams to clay loams	70 to 80
	Scimitar	Mid	Loams to clay loams	65 to 75
STRAND MEDIC M. littoralis	Harbinger	Early/mid	Light textured soils	75 to 85	Harbinger is another classic cultivar that has been used widely in WANA
	Herald	Early/mid	Light textured soils	75 to 85
	Harbinga AR	Mid	Light textured soils	75 to 85

The above chart provides a comprehensive list of cultivars for the Cereal Zone of WANA. In fact there are so many that a choice is often difficult.

In addition to the above there are some new cultivars in the pipeline:-

Angel

This is a cultivars developed with resistance to sulfonylurea herbicides. These herbicides are used on cereal crops and in low rainfall areas thre can be problems with residue in the soil reducing the productivity of the following medic pasture. Angel is suited to loamy sand to loams. It is early/mid season.

Jaguar

This is a Strand Medic due to be released in 2007. It is the first "pod holding" medic. This makes it easier to harvest with conventional harvesters rather than suction machines. While this will no doubt make the seed cheaper the seed sheding characteristic is an important protection for medic. It makes grazing of the dry pods more difficult.

Sub Clover

There are also a wide range of sub clovers (Trifolium subterraneum) that have been used in the cereal zone of Western Australia.

They are generally suited to acid soils.

Their great draw back has been their low hard seed percentage.

This has meant that rotations such as the classic medic-cereal rotation have not been possible. There has been insufficient hard seed to carry over the cereal crop and allow a good regeneration of pasture in the following season.

Farmers have generally sown the Sub clover and grazed it with sheep for two or three years. They have then sown two cereal crops or a cereal crop followed by a grain legume followed by another cereal crop.

Some of the newer cultivars (particularly those for short seasons) have a higher percentage of hard seed that makes them an alternative to medic in a classic medic-cereal rotation.

Sub - species brachycalycinum

For the WANA region this sub species of sub clover may have a role. It is adapted to neutral to alkaline soils.

Cultivar	Maturity	Hard seed %
Rosedale	Mid	50
Mintaro	Mid/late	50
Clare	Mid/late	10
Antas	Late	20

From a personal point of view I have had great success with Clare and Rosedale. Mintaro is a new cultivar that is more productive than Rosedale.

Balansa Clover

This is another species that can be useful over a range of soil pHs.

Cultivar	Maturity	Hardseed %
Frontier	Mid	50
Paradana	Mid/late	50
Bolta	Late	50

    

Neutral soils.

    There are three main species of annual legume pastures commonly used on these neutral soils.

    Burr medic (M. polymorpha) - see the selection chart above.

    The Clare group of sub clovers (T. subterraneum - sub species brachycalcinum)
 
 

Season length	Cultivar T. subterraneum - brachycalcinum	Hard seed level
Late to mid season	Clare Nuba	Low hard seed Moderate hard seed
Mid season	Antas	Moderate hard seed
Mid to early season	Rosedale	Moderate hard seed.

    The low level of hard seed in some cultivars of Sub clover makes them unsuitable for a legume - cereal rotation but my own experience with Clare was that it survived and regenerated well in a two year rotation with cereals.

    Balsansa Clover (T. balansae) from Turkey is well adapted to the neutral/mid range of soil pH. There are a number of cultivars.
 

Acid soils.

    Sub clover (Trifolium subterraneum) was the starting point for the Australian farming revolution based on annual self regenerating legumes.

While scientists searched the list of legumes grown in Britain for plants suitable for the dryland farming areas of Australia an Australian farmer, Amos Howard, searched his own fields. He identified sub clover on his farm at Mt. Barker in the hills above Adelaide in the 1880's.

Mt. Barker is a late season Sub clover with a low level of hard seed.

It has been used as a permanent pasture on the parcour rather than in rotation with cereals.

In the 1930's another farmer in Western Australia extended the range by identifying Dwalganup a short season sub clover with considerably more hard seed that was suitable for legume - cereal rotations.

    Since then the scientific community has carried out considerable research and produced an extensive range of sub clover cultivars for all combinations of rainfall and soil types with an acidic pH.

    It is impossible to list all the sub clovers but an indicative list of suitable cultivars is shown below.
 
 

Length of season	Sub clover cultivar	Hard seed level
Very late	Leura	Very low
Late to mid	Denmark Karridale	Low
Mid	Woogenellup Junee Coolamon Campeda	Low Moderate Moderate High
Mid to early	Seaton Park LF York	Moderate Very high
Early	Urana Losa Dalkeith	High
Very early	Nungarin Ismir	High

    As well as the sub clovers there are Rose clover and Serradella cultivars that are particularly suited to sandy soils (although sub clovers will grow well on a wide range of soil types).
   There are a range of cultivars suited to the mid and early parts of the cereal zone that have high levels of hard seed. These can be grown in rotation with cereals. For late season sub clovers there are fewer cultivars with high levels of hard seed. These are less suitable for a rotation.

Water logged soils.

    The Yaninnicum sub species of T. subterraneum is well suited to waterlogged soils. As sub clovers they prefer acid soils. Old cultivars such as Yarloop had high levels of oestrogen like substances that reduced sheep fertility but all the new cultivars listed below have been selected for low levels of oestrogen.