We have had several calls about all our Oregon crops.
I can not recall a year where we shipped less seed in July than we have this year. Generally we have shipped annual ryegrass from the valley by now and fescue and perennial ryegrass has begun to ship. We came into this year with fewer acres of seed production in the Willamette Valley than I can remember. To top that off this year there was hardly any inventory of some major crops like K-31 and annual ryegrass so there was no carry over seed to start the shipping season. Now the Valley is experiencing an unusually cool and wet summer so harvest is about 4 weeks late.
We don’t expect this to significantly impact the supply of Prine and the introduction of Earlyploid BUT shipping is going to be very hectic as we get the seed to the cleaners and then onto the rail cars. Certainly by the first of September we will have what we need to start the season.
Earlyploid is our new tetraploid annual ryegrass. It looks a lot like Prine in that it is big plant. What makes it different is that it matures about 3 weeks earlier than Prine. This is good for people who want their ryegrass to move on out so their permanent pastures can grow in. Many of these people had to plant diploids in the past but now with Earlyploid available they too can take advantages of the yield advantages of good, disease resistant tetraploids and still bring their permanent pastures on as they wish. We will have a relative small amount of this seed this year but we do still have some seed that has not been booked so give us a call if you want us to save some for you.
Thanks for you business and call us and let us know how Ragan and Massey forages are doing for you.
