Diploid perennial ryegrass options

Last month we talked about Agricom's new Prospect and have put it in front of you again in light of the One50 situation. Also previewed below are Trojan NEA2 and Extreme ryegrasses.

• Prospect Perennial ryegrass.
  Prospect is a new generation perennial (well mainly) ryegrass, released by Agricom. Prospect like a growing number of the new perennials has north-west Spanish perennial ryegrass in its breeding, along with traditional mid-heading perennial ryegrasses. Grasslands Impact is also in Prospects breeding, its thought this is the reason Prospect is between 96-98% perennial.
  
  Prospect has excellent all-year-round growth and it is a dense and fine leaved ryegrass with proven reliable all year round production. Due to Prospects flowering date of + 12 days, its peak growth is between a mid and late-heading perennial ryegrass.
  
  Flowering Date: Mid Flowering Type : + 12 days
  Endophyte Type: AR37
  When available: Now
  Seed Supply: Limited
  
  
  
• Trojan NEA2 Ryegrass.
  Trojan perennial ryegrass from Agriseeds was a sell-out success last season and represents a significant advance in pasture performance for New Zealand farmers.
  
  Under development for 16 years, it is descended from the popular Tolosa ryegrass. It combines the best balance of DM yield, persistence and feed quality of any Agriseeds cultivar, with no risk of ryegrass staggers.
  
  Trojan's persistence is equally impressive, helped by relatively fine leaves and dense tillers which make it a robust, long-lasting pasture. It also has good resistance to plant pulling on problem soils.
  
  With its late flowering date of +16 days and reduced aftermath heading, farmers will benefit from improved feed quality in late spring and summer, making the pasture easier to manage and extending the season of nutritious, palatable grazing.
  
  Flowering Date: Late Flowering Type: + 16 days
  Endophyte Type: NEA2
  When available: Now
  Seed Supply: Good
  
  
  
• Extreme Perennial Ryegrass.
  Extreme is a medium-broad leaved, persistent and densely tillered perennial ryegrass bred for high dry matter production, cool season activity and very low aftermath heading.
  
  Extreme is available with a range of endophyte options including AR37, AR1 and without endophyte. Careful consideration should be given to which endophyte type is best suited to your farming practice.
  
  Extreme perennial ryegrass is available with the AgResearch endophyte AR37. AR37 offers to Extreme the benefits of superior insect protection compared with any other current commercially available endophyte. Through inoculation with AR37, Extreme pastures will have resistance against Argentine Stem Weevil, Black Beetle, Pasture Mealy Bug, Root Aphid and Porina.
  
  The increased resistance provided by AR37 ensures better pasture persistence and maximum pasture production from Extreme in areas where there is higher insect pressure. This increased persistence and production of Extreme AR37 is expected to result in higher animal productivity.
  
  Flowering Date: Mid Season Flowering Type: 0 days
  Endophyte Type: LE, AR1, AR37
  When available: Now
  Seed Supply: Good
  
  

Contact Link: Please click here to contact Specialty Seeds today if you are interested in Prospect, Trojan NEA2, or Extreme perennial ryegrasses.


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Devour Tetraploid Annual Ryegrass.


For our clients who are looking for quick winter / spring feed it's hard to go past Devour.

Devour is a tetraploid Westerwold type ryegrass and will deliver quick, palatable and cheap winter feed followed by spring silage or more spring grazing.

Devour has all the traits common to tetraploid ryegrasses that include improved palatability, less cellulose and more sugars / carbohydrates when compared to diploid ryegrasses.

Devour is also an excellent alternative to commonly used oats, as you handle less seed 25 kgs/hectare compared to oats at 100 kgs/hectare, it doesn't get frosted and it has excellent disease resistance.

Being a tetraploid, Devour can be sown into less than perfect ground conditions as its large seed size make it quite tough.

Areas where we recommend Devour include: maize to maize, following a summer brassica, kikuyu restoration or in a mix with winter brassica.

We suggest a sowing rate of 25 kgs per hectare and we currently have good stocks of Devour. For a free quote please contact us.

Website Link: Click here to go to our Devour Annual Ryegrass website page.
Contact Link: Please click here to contact Specialty Seeds today.


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Using ryegrass heading dates on farm.


Having paddocks of different heading dates can improve spring growth and late spring quality, and make management easier. Specialty Seeds would like to highlight these benefits in brief below. For more information please click the image below to download a more indepth brochure.

• Advantage of early heading ryegrasses
  
  Early heading ryegrasses (up to about +7 days) will continue to be widely used on NZ farms for their excellent late August and September growth, during what is often a critical feed pinch period.
  
  
• Advantage of late heading ryegrasses
  
  As ryegrass heading starts, stems begin to develop, fibre levels rise and metabolisable energy (ME) drops. Late heading cultivars increase animal intake and performance in November by delaying the drop off in ME over standard heading cultivars.
  
  

Download Link: Click here to download the Using ryegrass heading dates on farm PDF.
Contact Link: Please click here to contact Specialty Seeds to talk about which ryegrasses suit your soil.


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As always, we hope this issue has been of some value to you. If you have a comment on this newsletter or anything on our website, please give us a call on our Freephone: 0800 727 8873, send us an email at: mail@specseed.co.nz.


Kind Regards



Stephen Finch & David Percival
Specialty Seeds - New Zealand