Breeding Better Kikuyu with Bill Fulkerson and Ken Bryant

Guests Bill Fulkerson and Ken Bryant speak with Zita Ritchie about a new cultivar of kikuyu which has shown resistance to fungal infections, particularly kikuyu yellows. Key management strategies are also discussed for kikuyu. Bill is a well know dairy researcher with many years of experience, particularly supporting farmers on the Far North Coast of NSW. Ken is a dairy farmer at Bexhill near Lismore and a director of the Norco Board and has been involved in the development of the new cultivar as part of the local Dairy Industry Development Group on the Far North Coast.

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Nathan Jennings (North Coast Local Land Services) nathan.jennings@lls.nsw.gov.au

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Transcript

The Business of Dairy 

Episode #23 Transcript – “Breeding Better Kikuyu with Bill Fulkerson and Ken Bryant”

Sheena Carter: Welcome to the Business of Dairy Podcast. I'm your host, Sheena Carter, Development Officer with the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries Dairy Team. Each month we speak with industry people generous enough to share their stories, knowledge and skills with us to help you in the increasingly complex area of farm business management. This month my colleague Zita Ritchie interviews Bill Fulkerson and Ken Bryant about Kikuyu management and the development of a new cultivar of Kikuyu, which has shown resistance to fungal infections, particularly Kikuyu Yellows. 

Bill is a well-known dairy researcher with many years of industry experience, particularly supporting farmers on the far north coast of New South Wales. Ken is a dairy farmer at Bexhill, near Lismore and a director of the Norco board and has been very involved in the development of a new cultivar as part of a dairy industry group on the far north coast. 

Zita Ritchie: Well, good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Business of Dairy Podcast, and today I've got Bill and Ken joining us. We're on the far north coast of New South Wales meeting today at Wollongbar at the Department of Primary Industries, and look, it's great to have you both in the room today. We're going to be talking about Kikuyu, and look, before we jump into that, I just thought it'd be great to just introduce you both for those that don't know you, and Bill, we might start with you. You've been involved in the dairy industry for a long time now, coming up to 54 years, and we know that you've worked in various different roles in research and really supported a lot of farmers, particularly in our area, and really specialise in the agronomy side of things. I guess, just a bit of background about yourself and what's really sparking your interest and what you're involved in at the moment? 

Bill Fulkerson: Well, I'm due to retire fairly soon, but if I was 30 years younger I'd actually be concentrating on trying to get more legumes into pasture, you know, because the cost of fertiliser and the environmental effect and stuff like that, you know, it seems such a logical thing to use something like a legume to give us all the nitrogen we want – it's free nitrogen from the air. It's a bit like renewable energy – it's free from the sun, you know what I mean? And we've just started using it, so that would be my passion, but too late. 

Zita Ritchie: Well, we'll get a few more years out of you yet, Bill. But then, and I guess more recently, what we're talking about today is Kikuyu. So you've been involved with that for a long time? 

Bill Fulkerson: Yeah well, the obvious thing to research up here is actually ryegrass and Kikuyu, plus some others. I've been very involved and I think it's just a marvellous grass for up here. 

Zita Ritchie: Ken, over to you. Look, you're farming up on the far north coast and, I don't know, would you like to give us a bit of an overview of your background in dairy farming and where your farm is and that kind of thing? 

Ken Bryant: Yes, Zita. So I'm on a family farm near Bexhill, about 15km north of Lismore. The family has been farming there since about 1940. We milk about 250 cows. It's a predominantly pasture system, we do have a bit of a mixed ration for about two thirds of the year, but really we rely on tropical grasses like Kikuyu and Setaria over summer and then over sowing that with ryegrass over winter. 

Zita Ritchie: For you, have you experienced many challenges growing Kikuyu, I mean, recently or in the past? And do you have a lot of Kikuyu in at the moment? 

Ken Bryant: Probably about half of our area is Kikuyu, but it's particularly a challenge at the moment. Between Kikuyu Yellows… but on our farm, more the Black Spot in Kikuyu, where you can go out one day and it'll be nice and green and look lush and then go back a couple of days later and the paddock just looks yellow and that's the Black Spot fungus that does that, and the cows really don't like to eat it. Once it goes like that you usually end up having to mow it down. It seems to become very unpalatable. So that's a major issue on our farm, and today that's a major issue on our farm. 

Zita Ritchie: And I think that's a pretty good segue into why we're talking about the new varieties. So, Bill, what Ken's just described, it’s a pretty common challenge, is it? With growing Kikuyu in the subtropics, you mentioned Kikuyu Yellows and Black Spot, do you want to touch on what they are, and the aims of the research, like, why are we developing a new variety and what were you trying to address? 

Bill Fulkerson: Both Kikuyu Yellows and Black Spot are both fungal diseases and they come in because of higher temperatures and humidity. There was a survey done in 1992 which looked at the importance of Kikuyu Yellows and the dairy industry, and they found that 30% of the pastures were Kikuyu based and 70% of the milk came from Kikuyu during that summer period, so it's very important. But good Kikuyu has really declined a lot and it's basically from those two fungal diseases, you know, the Kikuyu Yellows kills Kikuyu and like Ken says, Black Spot actually makes it unpalatable. Going back, sort of 20 years ago, people used to actually spray Kikuyu with glyphosate to stop it growing while they established ryegrass, and it's very sensitive to that, and over the time you just kill your Kikuyu, you know, so now farmers can manage it better without herbicides. 

Zita Ritchie: Yeah, so we've seen those changes already. So given that those challenges with those fungal diseases, where did the research start with trying to address that? So who did you involve and were you trying to breed Kikuyu Yellows and Black Spot out of Kikuyu? Is that what you're trying to do, or make it more resistant? 

Bill Fulkerson: Going back a little bit, in 2014 Mark Callow actually rang me up and he said that he had 1600 individual Kikuyu plants that had been selected in Queensland and New South Wales, and he was going to take them down to the tip. So he said, would you like them, and I said yes, we should have a look at those while they're there. And that's where it really started. So it was 1600 plants, all the labels were gone and everything, you know, and DIG then started to get involved and really pushed DA to give us some funds to get it going. And they gave us some initial funding for the initial screening of the 1600 to bring it back to 100 based on the root growth and top growth and whether they were erect. And then Karen Harper from UQ, who is a research agronomist, actually got individual data on quality and on yield from individual plants. And Percy Wong at Sydney University, he’s a mycologist, he tested all those plants for Kikuyu Yellows resistance. He ended up with 19 that were resistant. Those 19 is the ones that we then progressed from there onwards. 

Zita Ritchie: There's a few things there. So you said you started the research, well, you had these 1600 plants in 2014 that you took over from University of Queensland, is that right? 

Bill Fulkerson: Yeah, at Gatton. 

Zita Ritchie: I mean, you've been working in this area of research much before that, is that right? 

Bill Fulkerson: Yeah, the initial thing really started… DA gave us some funding and David Luckett in Wagga actually subjected the Whittet Kikuyu to a mutagenic agent, which increases variability for selection. And they're the ones we tested in Wollongbar in the late 1990s and there was one that was pretty good and one of those was the one we tested now. 

Zita Ritchie: Yeah, so looking at these different strains, or different varieties of Kikuyu, and trying to figure out the resistant strains and the ones that would perform better. So you mentioned 2014, so you had the 1600 varieties from UQ that they didn't need any more and you thought, I'm going to keep working on this, so Ken, Bill mentioned the DIG group before, can you just explain what the DIG group is and how you got involved with working with Bill on this new Kikuyu variety? 

Ken Bryant: So the DIG group is a north coast dairy industry group. It's just a local group of dairy farmers and service providers and people from this Northern Rivers region. Now, chairperson at the time, a lady called Leigh Sherman, talked to Bill and talked to Norco, and as Bill said, we had access to these 1600 varieties up there, but it was, what's the next step? You know, how do we progress this research? So that's where the DIG group became involved. But there was a lot of groups involved, like, as Bill said, initially Dairy Australia gave us some funding for that initial research where we tried to narrow the 1600 down to a more workable number of varieties. So then the DIG group through North Coast Local Land Services… like, so we ran out of funding again there and Dairy Australia couldn't come up with more funding, so Nathan Jennings, who works with North Coast Local Land Services – they've been wonderful, they've provided the funding from that point forward, and DIG group were the link, I guess, so the money came to DIG and then DIG sort of managed the research along with Bill who was working for Norco at that stage. So there were a lot of fingers in this little project. 

Zita Ritchie: And a really great example of a smallish dairy industry group in the region connecting with researchers like you, Bill, and tapping into others in the industry, like Local Land Services and getting that small funding from Dairy Australia to progress the research. It's really great. So then DIG was working with Bill and Local Land Services and then you had different research collaborators you mentioned, so what was the process then? So you had 1600 varieties and then you're able to narrow it down. So are we able just to talk through, just a few more details of that, to get this variety?

Bill Fulkerson: Basically, we had 1600, brought it back to 100, out of those there was 19, as I said, that were resistant to Kikuyu Yellows, and out of those we picked four that were actually at least as good in yield and in quality as Whittet. And they're the ones that we planted out from stolons in one site at Lismore and the other one site at Kyogle, and they were replicated – five plants were replicated over four reps, and they were actually planted into Kikuyu Yellows active areas on those farms. And then we monitored those from when they were planted to April, just to see how they were affected by Kikuyu Yellows. So the ones at Kyogle, the 12A was shown to be phenomenal resistant, because all the rest of them nearly died or certainly got Yellows, you know, so that was really exciting. But at Lismore it was a different strain of Kikuyu Yellows, obviously, they started to be affected later and they actually… probably three quarters of them recovered, and next year the area that we were using just turned back to normal Kikuyu. In Kyogle where 12A was really very resistant, the area that we had the plots on was completely devoid of Kikuyu, the Kikuyu Yellow killed everything.

Zita Ritchie: So, maybe just going back a step there, you mentioned 12A, what does that mean? So that's the… is that the variety that you found that was the most resistant? 

Bill Fulkerson: Well that was the only one that was resisted. The other ones, like I said, were just dead. Just killed.

Zita Ritchie: So out of those 1600, you went down to about 100 and then you selected four, and then you were able to go out into the field and test those four different varieties out in the paddock, comparing it to Whittet and Acacia was it?

Bill Fulkerson: Yeah that's right, and like I said, one showed phenomenal resistance in one location and in the other one it wasn't much better than Whittet. We also got an indication then that this 12A was quite exceptional in terms of its yield, you know, even when it got Kikuyu Yellows. 

Zita Ritchie: Yeah, right. So it's not only more resistant to Kikuyu Yellows, it's competitive in terms of yield. And what about quality as well, Bill? How does it compare? 

Bill Fulkerson: Perhaps I should just emphasise that that was really the aim of the experiment – to get a line that was resistant to Kikuyu Yellows and Black Spot. Well, they had to be equal to Whittet for the other things as well, but the focus was on Kikuyu Yellows fungal disease. 

Zita Ritchie: Yeah, so that was the main thing that you were selecting for in the new variety. And so, Ken, did you have a chance to see the plots? It was trialled in two areas, you said in Lismore and Kyogle, did you have a chance to go and see those? 

Ken Bryant: Yeah, we went out there several times I think, with Bill and Nathan Jennings, who was helping. Just a point of clarification: people who are listening, you might wonder what this 12A is, well 12A is actually what you'll buy as Fulkerson Kikuyu. 

Zita Ritchie: Yeah, and do you want to talk a bit about how you came up with the name there? 

Ken Bryant: Well, I think it's reasonably obvious, but Bill’s a shy person who is very reluctant to have this variety named after him, but later on we'll go into how it's been commercialised, and when we commercialised we decided it was just… Bill's put so much work into the development of this variety over decades and it just seemed fitting that it would be named after him, so when you hear 12A, just think, when you go to buy the seed, think Fulkerson. 

Zita Ritchie: That's right. So for listeners there, when we're talking about 12A, we're talking about the new variety, but now it's commercialised and called Fulkerson, and it's a credit to you, Bill, for all the hard work that you've done.

Bill Fulkerson: Just one comment. When Ken went out there to have a look, you know what I mean, did you see it? Well, it was interesting because on both properties, you know, when we were doing these experiments, both farm owners, when they used to come over and have a look, they'd say, we want that one. You know, it was so obvious.

Zita Ritchie: Yeah, so they're picking it out. So the difference was pretty obvious, was it? So in the plot trials, over what length of time did you have them in the paddock trialling it? 

Bill Fulkerson: Well see, the initial one to get just simply the Kikuyu Yellows resistant was only for three months during the period when Kikuyu Yellows and Black Spot actually are active and that's when the minimum temperature is over 15 degrees. You know, it's about three months of the summer. 

Zita Ritchie: Okay, right. So you had the varieties, you tested it in the paddock, so for those listening that might be interested in this variety, what were the key differences or key advantages that you found with the new variety? So with Fulkerson, or 12A, however you want to say it, overall, what did you find? 

Bill Fulkerson: Like I said, in the plots, 12A – in a second lot of plots, where we compared it to other cultivars, other lines, that were as higher quality, higher yield as Whittet, okay, but in those plots we actually got no Kikuyu Yellows, you know what I mean, because it was too early, it takes years. But in the paddock that it was in, it was all… for three months was covered in Black Spot, the Whittet plots were yellow for four months, the 12A, and a couple of the others, were just green all the time, you know, so it was an indication, you know, just how resistant they were. 

Zita Ritchie: Yeah, so it's not only more resistant to Yellows and Black Spot… so did you find any differences in percentage yield, compared to Whittet or Acacia? 

Bill Fulkerson: 12A was a 24% higher yield than Whittet and 12A was 12% higher than Acacia. The other important thing too, Zita, they were the yields, but the 12A, and also Acacia, were actually a fair bit more growth during the winter. They came out of the winter earlier and were high yielding, which makes sense because Acacia comes from the Acacia Plateau where it was selected in a cold area, but it was interesting that 12A also was just as good in terms of coming out. 

Zita Ritchie: What about cow preference? Did you find any difference, you know, with cows preferring Acacia or Whittet over the new variety, 12A? 

Zita Ritchie: One experiment after the 12th month, but it was only one experiment and that showed that 12A was preferred for the group of cows that we had. But all we wanted to say with that is it's an indication, you know what I mean, we didn’t want to be dead certain. But from the couple of farmers that have grown it since, they have mentioned that it's preferred, you know, so I think it's pretty, you know… 

Zita Ritchie: So then what then? So you saw that it was obviously successful in the trials and the greenhouse and you took it out and tried it on farm, so then, obviously, there's a lot of merit in this new variety, so you've gone down this path of commercialisation. So where's that up to? Maybe, Ken, you’d like to mention where that's up to now? And can you buy this seed, like, where is it at? 

Ken Bryant: Yeah, you can by the seed, which is very exciting. Just before I go into that, I just want to thank the DPI here at Wollongbar too, because they were a massive help in all those research years – letting us keep potted plants in greenhouses, and then we also had a field trial here as well. So just a little acknowledgement of them and their help in the project, but yeah, we had to commercialise it and harvesting Kikuyu seed is just really, really specialised. There's not a lot of people actually in the world that do it. So Bill had contacts with these people out at Quirindi, south of Tamworth, Eykamp Seeds, and they showed a lot of interest. They got word that there was a new Kikuyu variety coming somehow and they, sort of, chased us because they mainly grow Whittet and Acacia for seed. So any potential new variety that was better was going to be a threat to them. So they were pretty keen to catch up. They came down here probably half a dozen times to check it out and to check us out and to work out where it was going to go. So eventually we… it was quite a process, we got the rights to the varieties signed over to the Dairy Industry Group from DA and DAFQ and that, so then we could sell the rights for the seed to Eykamps, is what happened, for a fee, a small fee. And then they… how many, you provided them with some pots of plants, didn’t you, Bill, 200 pots? 

Bill Fulkerson: I think they had four acres, I think, from cuttings that we produce for them. 

Ken Bryant: And they've expanded that now, Zita, so they've now got, I think they've got 40 acres producing seed now and they're planning a whole lot more. 

Zita Ritchie: So there'll be more becoming available as time goes on? 

Ken Bryant: As we go forward, there’ll become more and more seed. 

Zita Ritchie: Now that it's available commercially, but on small level, have many farmers tried it and using it up on the far north coast now? 

Ken Bryant: There's not a lot yet because right now is the first time we've been able to buy seed. They provided us with some seed last year, which Bill has used, earlier Bill mentioned a focus farm project, so some of the farmers that are in that project were provided with some of the seed. Like it was only, like, 300 kilos, it was only a small amount, which Eykamps actually gave us, and so there's not a lot being grown, but there are a couple of dairies up near Kyogle that have planted it last season, so 12 months on, and if you see the pictures of that, it's pretty spectacular. 

Zita Ritchie: Can farmers actually go in and buy this seed now or is it in limited supply? Can dairy farmers access it if they wanted to trial some? 

Ken Bryant: Yeah, they can, yeah.

Zita Ritchie: Where can they get it from?

Ken Bryant: If I’m allowed to give a plug? It's available through Norco stores in the Northern Rivers and south east Queensland. So yeah, if you're after the seed to purchase through Norco stores  talk to their agronomists about how to establish it because establishment is very… a lot of things can go wrong with establishing any summer pastures, so you really need to get that right. 

Zita Ritchie: Yeah, absolutely, I think that's a good point to mention. So we've got a new variety, it's not going to solve all your challenges unless you manage it well, so what are the key tips, Bill? So if farmers are looking at trying this new variety, the Fulkerson variety, as it's called commercially, what are some of the key things that you should consider, like managing any pasture? 

Bill Fulkerson: For establishing it, you mean?

Zita Ritchie: Establishing it and then managing it well. 

Bill Fulkerson: Before we go on to that, the study started in 2014 and it took us five years to get the final results. Then, what has to happen before they register it, they have to get seed and sow Kikuyu from the original seed of 12A for two years to make sure that it breeds true to the traits that we were developing. And that's why it's been a long haul. So it's been five years for the research and then three years waiting for this registration, sort of, 8 to 9 years, which is probably average for registering a line. 

Zita Ritchie: Yeah, okay. So yeah, it's a long time isn't it, to have the seed and then develop it and make it available commercially? 

Bill Fulkerson: It's interesting because we took that long to get the variety, but see then, you know, because farmers have been really hesitant to re-sow Kikuyu because it just goes with Kikuyu Yellows and Black Spot, so, you know, they're not very familiar with how to do it. And we did some initial work and if you've got no weeds in your paddock, absolutely no weeds, the best time to sow it is actually the beginning of October, if you haven't, which is just about impossible, it's a disaster, okay. So you've got to put it in in early October when the temperature is below 15 degrees, because if it’s above that you're still germinating these really bad hard grass weeds like crowsfoot and stuff like that, okay. So that was the first thing that we had to do, that you have to do, you know – very strongly recommend autumn sowing. And the other thing is, if you can, just spray it out and as soon as you can afterwards, just disc it in, if you can, because even then you still you get problems from weeds. So your minimum disturbance, if you can use a disc drill it's best, and then you don't sow it with ryegrass. You wait for six weeks until the Kikuyu is up and then let the cows have a bit of a nibble. But you actually broadcast only ten kilos of ryegrass per hectare on the Kikuyu and let the cows tread it in. Okay, so you've got ten kilos, very light because normal is 40, going forward and that allows enough light through in the winter and, sort of, actually prevents a bit of damage from frost, you know, when you get further inland. 

The other critical part is at the other end. Because you've got ten kilos, you still go to the normal – you know, during spring – about two weeks grazing interval, again to stop the shade. So you've got, with the young Kikuyu, you've got from nine degrees centigrade when the Kikuyu wants to start growing again, and you can tell that because the stolons run everywhere, you know. So you've got a time from nine degrees centigrade, which is about, well, it's actually the middle of September probably, you know, so you've got a real battle because that's the maximum growth of your ryegrass, you know what I mean, so you can't go any longer than 12 to 14 days. So from that time until the end of November, you know what I mean, you make sure there's no shade and you put plenty of nitrogen in and get that Kikuyu just to spread everywhere and block out the crowsfoot and other weeds. It's the only way you can control it, you know, so yeah. 

Zita Ritchie: So you’re saying, you can sow in September or October, if there's no weeds, but if there is you're better off autumn sowing?

Bill Fulkerson: Yeah but that's the point, I don't know about 30 years ago, but now all these places are just riddled with seed of crowsfoot and…

Zita Ritchie: So really preferred is autumn sowing then? 

Bill Fulkerson: At best it's a real problem, at worst it’s a disaster. 

Zita Ritchie: Yep, I see. Ken, do you have any comments around the management of it and what you've seen or experienced? 

Ken Bryant: We haven't planted any, obviously, but I'm about to plant about ten hectares on our farm. But I think the key point is, just plant a smaller area of your farm each year. Because you're only planting your ryegrass at ten kilos to the hectare instead of 40 or 50, depending on the variety, you're going to sacrifice some ryegrass yield off that area for this first winter/spring. So be prepared for that. So the recommendation would be to just plant a small area of your farm each year so that you don't compromise your total pasture production too much. And also, we should get more skilled at doing it, like, so we have this one trail – the seed cost will seem expensive, but if you manage it right and get it established, it's a one off. So it's there forever, hopefully. So it's worth sacrificing a little bit of yield in that first year to make sure the rye doesn't get shaded out because you're just trying to get the rye. 

Zita Ritchie: So once it's established, is there… management of it, I guess? 

Bill Fulkerson: That first spring is critical, you know what I mean, for shade and everything, but it's just as critical in an established pasture, you know, we didn't realise just how important. But if you, say, cut silage after the middle of September, you know, you have a long lockup period, your Kikuyu after that is actually really inhibited for a couple of months, back into January. We're not sure why. One part is, if it’s shaded it doesn't have any reserves of carbohydrates, but it shouldn't last two months. So it does. So it's just critical that you realise that that's part of it. 

But the other part of management is that, you know, it's lower quality than ryegrass, so you've got to do everything to keep your quality up. And that's mainly the right grazing interval so you don't get too much unpalatable grass; and putting nitrogen on, you know, making sure you have… and that's one of the worries we've got for this, you know, if some farmers – perhaps beef farmers that don't like using fertiliser – you're still going to get a bit of an advantage, but they're never going to get the potential. 

Zita Ritchie: Yeah, so really the management's key. So that's like, looking at your rotation, ensuring you’re grazing at the right stage, and then you're fertiliser usage as well. 

Bill Fulkerson: The other thing is, in a good year – during January to mid-March – you're going to have far too much Kikuyu, you know what I mean? So you either cut it for silage, or you run followers behind it to clean it up, or you slash it, but you've got to do something. 

Zita Ritchie: Yeah, all those management techniques to keep on top of it. 

Bill Fulkerson: And the other thing with that is, that if you don't do that then you end up with a great big mat in late March and you're trying to put ryegrass into it. 

Zita Ritchie: So management is still key, isn’t it really, with the new variety as well? Any other tips on that? 

Ken Bryant: On the quality, like, right through this project, one of the criteria was that the metabolisable energy level of the new variety not be less than the Acacia and the Whittet that we already had, and they are very, very similar. We actually had another variety that showed promise because it had a higher energy level, but it didn't stack up on the other criteria we were looking at, so we gave it the flick. 

Zita Ritchie: Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it, like balancing all the qualities, isn't it? So it's like, like you said, energy, but also the resistance to Yellows. But really the quality, the energy, the metabolisable energy of this variety is comparable, is it, to something like Whittet or Acacia? 

Bill Fulkerson: We were actually very lucky that we got one, a line that was resistant to both of those fungal diseases as well as a bit of a benefit from higher yield, you know what I mean, and the cows like it, you know, a lot of those things could have gone wrong. 

Zita Ritchie: Yeah, so it's a bit of a win win from both perspectives, isn't it? 

Ken Bryant: And just to comment, when we sold it to Eykamp, there was always a question mark over how much seed it would set, whether it would actually set seed, so our biggest sigh of relief was when they harvested it the first time, because when they harvest it, like, it costs a lot of money, they only get a maximum of about 150 kilos of seed to the hectare for a year's work, and we were very nervous as to what the seed set would be, but it's looking good. Like, yeah, it's looking like it seeds well, but there was always a big question mark over how prolific it would seed. 

Bill Fulkerson: Graham Wilson at Grafton, and he actually developed the method of collecting seed because it's different to any other grass, so that's been very important. And Eykamp, I would say, would be the best Kikuyu seed producers in the world, I think. 

Zita Ritchie: Yeah, well how lucky are we to be able to have that resource so close by, I guess, to commercialise it for us. Well, I think that's given a really good overview of the background about how you came about developing it, your steps for development, now it's available and hopefully will become more available, before we wrap things up, are there any key things that you want to get across about the new variety? What would they be, Bill, for you? 

Bill Fulkerson: I'd say up to now, Ken, that hardly any farmer would be actually sowing Kikuyu, you know. So if this variety can actually do what it’s indicating, I think it'll make a lot of difference to the industry, you know? 

Zita Ritchie: Yeah, that's fantastic. So having that available now and then managing it correctly could make a real difference to the feed base available on the farm and farmers wanting to actually re-sow and get back more into Kikuyu, ideally. And what about you, Ken? For the farmers listening particularly, what do you think, is there any key messages that you would like to get across about this variety? 

Ken Bryant: I just think it's fantastic, and I guess my advice is have a crack at it, try a small area. If you think about it, Whittet is, sort of, naturalised between Victoria and the top of Queensland. When you see Kikuyu, probably 95% or more, it's mostly Whittet, so Whittet’s got issues, especially in the subtropics, so my advice is just to plant some and see for yourself how good it is. 

Zita Ritchie: So I think that's great. So really the key message is give it a go, have a look into it, see if you can access a small proportion of it and plant some on your farm. 

Bill Fulkerson: There is one thing that we didn't mention, is that we actually got inoculum from Kikuyu infected paddocks from Taree to south east Queensland. There was 11 farms, on eight farms Whittet got affected and 12A didn't, but on the other three they both got affected, you know what I mean, so you never get 100%. 

Ken Bryant: The other thing is, I'm a dairy farmer, we're talking about this from dairy, but the potential for beef farmers is probably even bigger. It’s dairy money that has developed this variety, but the potential for beef farmers is even greater than for the dairy industry. And the other thing is that in our deal with Eykamps – Eykamps sell Kikuyu seed all over the world – they can't sell it overseas until there's too much for the Australian market. So our Australian farmers get an advantage. Let's buy it and get it in here before they start sending it all around the world. 

Bill Fulkerson: There's probably areas, like the south coast and in other parts of the world, where they don't have this thing, but it's unlikely because Kikuyu grows in a subtropical area, you know what I mean, but there could be some. And then we're fortunate that it's at least as good in quality as Whittet anyway, and it's 23% more yielding than Whittet, you know what I mean, so they’re still going to be able to sell it overseas even if they’ve got no fungal. 

Zita Ritchie: Yeah, so it's got relevance and advantages for farmers in Australia but globally as well. Yeah, no, it's a fantastic achievement. I think the involvement with the DIG group and, Bill, your expertise and research in bringing together all these partners across industry to… and also acknowledging Nathan Jennings from the Local Land Services, it’s been a huge amount of work, and particularly from the DIG group side as well, with always supporting and pushing this forward, and it's fantastic to see. If farmers want to find out more information about this, where can they get that, Bill? 

Bill Fulkerson: We're actually just updating a pamphlet on milk production from Kikuyu based pastures, and that should be out in a couple of months and we've incorporated all this recent stuff into it. 

Zita Ritchie: I guess that'll be available through the New South Wales DPI website as well. So if people want to keep an eye on that. 

Bill Fulkerson: DPI and/or LLS website. 

Zita Ritchie: Stay tuned for that fact sheet, but I think in the interim, if people want to find out more information, they can contact me or also contact the DIG group. 

Ken Bryant: Yep, or Bill and Nathan ran a webinar recently for all the Norco agronomists. It's for all the Norco stores, so they should be fairly up to speed on the new variety as well, and especially how to establish it. 

Zita Ritchie: Yeah, that's right. So you can reach out to Nathan Jennings at the Local Land Services or the Norco rural stores about how to access the seed, if you're a farmer listening. 

Bill Fulkerson: I guess the other thing, if they were interested, the scientific paper on it is actually available from DIG, isn't it, Ken? 

Zita Ritchie: There's also a scientific paper that's been re-written, so I can give a pop a link to that in the episode notes, if people are interested to read that paper and hopefully find out some more information. But thanks very much, Bill and Ken, for joining us on today's podcast, it's been great to hear more about it and hopefully those listening, if there's interest, they can find out more information about how to get the seed and give it a go on your farm. But thanks very much. 

Ken Bryant: Thank you, Zita, and just acknowledging Bill, just amazing his dedication to the dairy industry and what a game changer this new variety could be. 

Zita Ritchie: Absolutely. Thanks very much, Bill. 

Bill Fulkerson: It’s been a pleasure. Every day. 

Zita Ritchie: Every day in the dairy industry. 

Sheena Carter: Thank you for listening to this month's The Business of Dairy Podcast produced by the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries Dairy Business Advisory Unit. This series is brought to you with funding and support from the Hunter Local Land Services. If you'd like to learn more about what has been discussed in this podcast, please reach out to Nathan Jennings, who is a senior land services officer with the North Coast Local Land Services. Nathan's email address is in the show notes. We'd love you to share this podcast with your networks and feel free to send any feedback or suggestions for future episodes to thebusinessofdairy@gmail.com. You can also subscribe to our Facebook and Twitter feed and view or subscribe to our dairy newsletter using the links provided.