Timing is a diploid late perennial ryegrass that is proving highly successful on farms in France. It is a high yielding variety for both grazing and conservation.
“Timing has a great seasonal distribution of grass so it can be grazed from early summer until late autumn,” says Limagrain’s grass seed manager Ian Misselbrook. “Adding to its grazing benefits is its dense ground cover, making it more resistant to poaching than many
other ryegrasses.”
The second of Limagrain’s new varieties is the intermediate tetraploid perennial ryegrass Pensel. This nutritious variety has good sugar content and is highly digestible. Conservation yields are especially high in its first year.
“Pensel stays leafy for longer than many other intermediate perennial ryegrasses so it is ideal in a mixture used for summer grazing when other varieties are under-performing.
“It also brings great disease benefits with the highest scores for Crown Rust resistance among intermediate tetraploids and excellent scores for Drechslera and mildew resistance.”
Limagrain’s third new grass, Udine, has the highest dry matter yield among the tetraploid Italian ryegrasses on trial in the year of sowing and is 13% higher than the control. It has very good ground cover compared with other Italian ryegrasses.
“One of Udine’s key benefits is its disease resistance package. It scores in the top third among tetraploid Italian ryegrasses for all the main diseases.”
Mr Misselbrook is keen to see these new varieties bring benefits to the UK livestock industry. “The focus for livestock production is firmly on improving efficiency from home grown forages so the introduction of these new varieties, with their high conservation and feeding qualities and disease resistance advantages, should bring real benefits to merchants in formulating state of the art mixtures.”