It is an exciting time in the Willamette Valley! The valley is the heart of the Oregon cool-season grass seed industry and seed harvest is underway. This beautiful valley that sits south of Portland, OR is bordered by the Oregon Coastal Range to the West and the Cascades to the East. Here the winter is mild, and moisture is abundant in autumn, winter and spring. Summer turns warm and dry with little normal rainfall. This makes for ideal conditions for high-quality cool-season grass seed production. The Novel Endophyte Tall Fescue varieties currently being marketed are all grown in the valley.
This crop year is ending with seed reaching maturity and the combines starting to run. Growing conditions this year have been mixed. Spring started off cold and wet, and April was one of the coolest on record. There was concern of a late harvest, but in May the weather shifted to warm and dry. Accumulated heat units caught up to average, and the worries about a late harvest were relieved.
Weather during tall fescue pollination was very favorable with several days of consistent warm temperatures allowing for a tighter pollinating window. This will allow more uniform seed maturity at time of swathing, especially compared to last year. Novel endophyte viability is expected to be normal, so excellent overall quality is expected.
June has also been warm and dry, so conditions for harvest look good. The first lots of novel endophyte tall fescue should be cleaned, tested, and ready to ship by the end of July. While grass seed yields in general are expected to be down slightly across the valley, supplies of Novel Endophyte Tall Fescue seed should be ample.
Novel Endophyte Tall Fescue seed is especially high quality because it is all new crop seed. However, this means that the seed you will need this fall is still being harvested. After it is swathed and then gathered by the combine the seed will be cleaned and tested for endophyte infection, and then shipped to dealers across the tall fescue belt. Seed usually is not available until mid-August, so if you are in the northern parts of the tall fescue belt and want to plant in early September be sure to order your seed now. Regardless of where you are if you know what variety of Novel Endophyte Tall Fescue you want to plant, order it now. Otherwise visit www.grasslandrenewal.org, or go directly to this publication to pick a variety: https://go.ncsu.edu/novel.fescue.varieties
~ Matt Poore (North Carolina State University), Jerome Magnuson (DLF Pickseed) and Mark Thomas (Mountain View Seeds)
The Alliance for Grassland Renewal is a national organization focused on enhancing the appropriate adoption of novel endophyte tall fescue technology through education, incentives, self-regulation and promotion. For more resources or to learn more about the Alliance for Grassland Renewal, go to www.grasslandrenewal.org
The Alliance for Grassland Renewal 