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Sowing Guide 2014Sowing Guide 2014Vetch variety sowing guide 2014By Rade Matic, Stuart Nagel and Gregg Kirby,SARDI National Vetch Breeding ProgramVetch is a multi-purpose cropgrown mostly as a disease breakcrop in rotation with cereals in awide range of soil types from light sandsto heavier clay soils.Common Vetch varieties(Languedoc,Blanchfleur, Morava A ,Rasina A , and Cummins) versatility allowscropping for grain or hay production,early grazing as green pasture or fordry grazing, hay production or greenmanure.Grain vetches have been grown in lowerto mid-rainfall cereal areas of SouthernAustralia, and their grain yields havebeen similar to pea yields in these areas.Note that vetch grain is not used forhuman consumption and has limited usein pig rations.Grain from Morava and Rasina can beused without limit to feed all ruminantsand as up to 25% in the diet of pigs.Forage vetches are used for hay,green manure or mid to late winterfeed for grazing. They are purplevetch (V. banghalensis) variety Popany,or Woolly Pod vetches (V. villosa ssp.dasycarpa) varieties Namoi, Capello ® orHaymaker ® . Forage vetches can growsuccessfully in areas of 400 to 650mm ofannual rainfall. Grain from woolly podvetch varieties CAN NOT be used to feedany livestock.Morava and Rasina are resistant to rustand are the preferred varieties for grainin areas prone to rust infections.Disease management is critical whengrowing a vetch crop regardless of theend use, where possible diseaseresistant varieties should beplanted as a preference.Care must be taken whengrowing rust susceptible varietiesas grazing or feeding hay/silagefrom rust infected plants mayinduce abortions in pregnantlivestock. So while it is usuallynot economically viable to use fungicidesfor rust on vetch it may be necessarywhere rust susceptible varieties are to beused as feed.Ascochyta blight occurs in earlier stagesof the vetch crop and can reduce grainand dry matter production, but not likea heavy infestation of Botrytis grey mould(BGM) can in cool/wet growing seasonswith high amounts of vegetative growth.There is little difference between vetchvarieties in their resistance to BGM;varieties like Morava, which producegreater levels of vegetative growth anddenser canopies, will be more prone tothis disease in higher rainfall areas.When selecting a vetch variety growersalso need to consider their individualfarm and paddock situation and mostimportantly the end use targeting for thecrop and to make this selection on all theavailable information.Notes on varietiesCommon vetch (Vicia sativa)Table 1. Vetch grain variety rainfall zones (mm).600Languedoc Rasina Morava Morava MoravaRasina Blanchefleur Rasina RasinaCummins Cummins BlanchefleurLanguedoc CumminsMoravaRade MaticLanguedoc. Languedoc is an earlyflowering and maturing varietyrecommended for low rainfall areasalthough it can lodge severely makingharvest difficult under certain conditions.Languedoc generally exceedsBlanchefleur’s grain yield inareas with less than 350mmrainfall. Its hard seed content isgenerally around 5-10% and it ishighly susceptible to rust.Blanchefleur. Prior to therelease of Morava, Blanchefleurhad been the preferred grain varietyin areas above 350mm rainfall in SA.Blanchefleur has mid maturity, whiteflowers and reddish brown/mottled seedwith orange cotyledons.Blanchefleur is very susceptible torust. It is well suited to medium to highrainfall areas where rust is not a regularproblem. Both vetch and lentils are onthe prescribed grain list of AQIS due tothe vetch-lentil substitution issue, thishas meant export markets of orangecotyledon varieties like Blanchefleur arelimited to small bird seed markets inEurope and seed for grazing and greenmanure crops only.Cummins. Cummins is a mid to earlymaturing, white flowering variety selectedfrom Languedoc. It is well adapted tomedium to low rainfall areas where itgenerally yields higher than Blanchefleur.Cummins is susceptible to rust andmoderate susceptible to Ascochyta blight.Morava A . Morava is a rust resistant lateflowering vetch variety with 100% softseeds, develop by SARDI’s AustralianNational Vetch Breeding Program(ANVBP).Grain yield is superior to othervetches in the high rainfall areas and toTable 2. Vetch hay/silage/grazing and green manuring variety selection600Rasina Rasina Morava Morava CapelloBlanchefleur Morava Rasina Popany HaymakerCummins Cummins Popany Capello MoravaLanguedoc Popany Capello Haymaker PopanyMorava Blanchefleur HaymakerBlanchefleur, Languedoc and Cumminsin all other areas in the presence of rust.It is larger seeded and more resistantto shattering than other vetch varieties.The anti nutritional factor (BCN) levelsare 50% lower than Blanchefleur andLanguedoc.Morava produces higher herbage yieldsthan all other common vetch varieties.Morava is later flowering and maturingthan Blanchefleur and grain yield willbe reduced in environments with dryfinishes.Morava is moderately resistant toAscochyta blight and very susceptible toBotrytis, because Morava produces veryhigh biomass in wet/cool zones.Morava is a PBR variety and can besourced from Heritage Seeds.Rasina A . Rasina is soft seededvetch from the ANVBP, and replacesLanguedoc, Blanchefleur and Cumminsin low to medium rainfall areas forgrain production. Rasina is earlier for5-10 days than Blanchefleur and 10 to 15days earlier than Morava. A significantadvantage over Languedoc, Blanchefleurand Cummins is Rasina’s resistanceto rust and slightly more tolerant toAscochyta blight and Botrytis.However, Rasina is not expectedto replace Morava in higher rainfalldistricts or for hay production. The levelof anti-nutritional factors is 0.6 to 0.8compared to 0.9 to 1.6 in Blanchefleurand Languedoc, respectively.Rasina possesses a distinctive uniformdark brown speckled seed coat with darkbeige cotyledons.Rasina is a PBR variety and can besourced from Heritage Seeds.Purple Vetch (Vicia villosa subsp.banghalensis)Popany is purple vetch. Grain yieldis significantly lower than yields fromcommon vetch varieties.But, seeds are smaller than seeds fromcommon vetch varieties therefore theseeding rate is lower at approximately30-35kg/ha.Grain from this variety can beused as a bird feed in mix with otherrecommended grains. Popany is a latematurity variety, >125 days from seedingto podding.It is a good variety in mid to highrainfall areas for hay/silage. Popany,possesses 5-10% hard seeds. This varietyis resistant to rust but susceptible toascochyta and chocolate spot.Seed coat is black with distinctive whitehilum.Table 3. Characteristics of selected vetch varietiesVariety Maturity Yield potential Flower % of pod % of Disease reaction*Grain Dry colour shattering hard Rust Asochyta BotrytismatterseedsCommon vetch varieties (Vicia sativa)Blanchefleur Mid High Mod White 5-10 5-10 VS MR SCummins Mid-early High Mod White 5-10 5-15 VS MR SLanguedoc Very early High Low Purple 10-20 5-15 VS S SMorava Late High High Purple 0 0 R MS VSRasina Early-mid High Mod Purple 0-2 0 R MR SPurple vetch (Vicia villosa subsp. benghalensis)Popany Very late Low High Purple 20-30 5-10 R S VSWoolly pod vetches (Vicia villosa subsp. dasycarpa)Namoi Late Low Very high Purple 5-10 25-35 R S VSHaymaker Late Low Very high 5-10 20-30 R S VSCapello Late Low Very high 5-10 15-20 R S VSTable 4. 2009-11 grain and dry matter yield for common vetch varieties, plus dry matter yield for woolly podvetch varieties.Variety Grain Dry matter**yield(t/ha)Woolly pod vetch (Vicia villosasubsp. dasycarpa)Capello A and Haymaker A .Woolly podvetches are lower in grain yield comparedwith common vetches, but are muchhigher in dry matter production thancommon vetch varieties in rainfall areas>450mm/yr.Grain from these varieties can not beused to feed any livestock. Also, thisvariety can only be grazed from the% ofBlanchefleuryield(t/ha)% ofMoravaCommon vetch varieties*Blanchefleur 1.89 100 5.71 95.81Morava 2.11 111.64 5.96 100Rasina 2.08 2.08 5.69 95.47Languedoc 0.91 48.11 4.32 72.48Dry matter average for common vetches 5.42Woolly pod vetch varieties**Namoi 6.75 113.26Haymaker 6.59 110.57Cappello 6.15 103.19Dry matter average for woolly pod vetches 6.50Purple vetch varietyPopany 5.28 88.59* data from 5 sites - Blyth, Lameroo, Peake, Kingsford & Charlick.** data for both species presented from 4 sites: Minlaton, Charlick, Kingsford & LamerooTable 5. Plant density and recommended seeding rates for vetch.Common vetch varieties Woolly pod vetch varieties Purple vetch variety*End use Plants density(plants perSowing rate(kg/ha)Plants density(plants perSowing rate(kg/ha)Plants density(plants perSowing rate(kg/ha)sq.m.)sq.m.)sq.m.)Grain 40-60 40-50 40-50 25-40 40-50 25-40Hay/silage 50-70 50-60 50-60 30-45 50-60 30-45Grazing 50-70 50-60 50-60 30-45 50-60 30-45Green manure 60-70 55-65 60-70 45-50 50-60 30-45* in Australia only Popany exsisting as Purple vetch variety10-node stage to podding time. It is notrecommended that grazing occur earlierand also once the plants begin to developseed pods. These two varieties are verygood for hay/silage production in areas>400mm of rainfall annually.Haymaker and Capello are selected softseed varieties from Namoi. In last fewyears these two varieties have becomeprone to hard/dormant seeds.Both varieties are owned by HeritageSeeds.24 > SARDI Sowing Guide 2014 2014 SARDI Sowing Guide < 25