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Early Perennial Ryegrass varieties used in Triumph Leys for 2006

Perennial Ryegrass

Perennial Ryegrass is the maincomponent of medium an dlong term leys as well as permanent pasture and is the most widely sown species in the UK. Perennial Ryegrass is classified by heading date, varieties being grouped together as Early, Intermediate and Late. Diploid and Tetraploid varieties are available in each group and the latter tend to offer higher conservation cuts, good palatability, good sugar levels adn winter hardiness but generally have a more open growth habit.

Early Perennial Ryegrass

Early Perennial Ryegrass heads in early to mid May and has good early Spring growth which is useful for Spring sheep grazing and early silage cuts taken in mid May. Most varieties however lack good Summer production.

Donard 9th May/10th May*

Donard produces very high total grazing and sialge yields, an exceptionally good aftermath digestibility for an early, as well as a superb Spring and Autumn grazng performance. Good ground cover and good grazing D value.

Session (Tetraploid) 11th May/17th May*

Session forms dense swards for a tetraploid variety and gives an excellent Spring grazing performance. It produces a good 1st Conservation cut at 67D and its 3rd year performance under NIAB gives it the hightest yielding ranking of all early varieties under cutting. Session exhibits bery good quality at both cuts and is a proven well grazed variety in actual animal grazing trials.

* The first date alongside each variety refers to the equivalent to 50% ear emergence of that variety in central England in an average season according to NIAB. This will vary with season and altitude. Similar SAC figures taken from an average of their three sites is appopximately 12 days later for each variety.

* The second date after each variety refers to the date at which that variety achieves 67D in an average season. This date would be about one week earlier in Devon and one week later in Northumberland and would also be later at higher altitudes.

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