Italian ryegrasses typically out yield perennial ryegrasses, particularly in terms of cool-season growth potential.
Perennials have the capacity to reliably survive and produce for many, many years.
Hybrid ryegrasses are a category that offer cool season yield potential approaching that of Italian ryegrasses, with reliable persistence over several years.
Hybrid ryegrasses, like Italians have a high proportion of vegetative tillers, and have good potential to come back next year if these tillers can survive the summer.
Cooler temperatures, irrigation or rainfall, good fertility, and grazing management will help this. In the right environment, a hybrid ryegrass will potentially behave more like a perennial and last multiple years.
Hybrids have their best application in areas that can reliably or at least marginally produce perennial ryegrass pastures.
Given a generous and long spring, good nutrition and careful management over summer, these multi-year hybrids reliably bounce back after summer and offer great utility as autumn ensues, or with the aid of irrigation.
Hybrid ryegrasses will have terrific utility in the following situations:
- high performance ryegrass pasture for 2, 3, 4+ years, depending on the type of hybrid and environment.
- excellent cool-season performance for winter feed
- big silage or hay production with prospects for multiple cuts
- irrigation
- over-sowing into existing, partially run-out pastures
- over-sowing into thinning lucerne or chicory stands
Barenbrug has dedicated over three decades to developing an elite hybrid breeding program, which offers break-through hybrid varieties such as Samurye NEA12, Shogun and Forge NEA for long-term persistence and excellent year-round yield.
If you would like to discover more about the different types of hybrid ryegrass, their uses, and applications, please visit barenbrug.com.au.
17°C