Plant breeders Pedro Evans and Elizabeth Kitson have been working hard near Christchurch for eight years to develop improved ryegrasses.
“Dairy farmers want pastures that grow well throughout the year but especially in winter and early spring, when our cold temperatures and short days limit pasture growth and make it difficult to feed cows cheaply,” Evans says.
“We screened thousands of plants and selected the very elite performers during winter and early spring.”
Ansa perennial ryegrass yielded better than 10 of the 11 cultivars it was tested against over winter with Meridian the only cultivar equal to Ansa. Ansa also performs well throughout the rest of the year.
“A second characteristic we selected for was high tiller density as that is important for the plant to maintain good ground cover, tolerate grazing and droughts and compete strongly with weeds,” Evans says.
Ansa AR1 perennial ryegrass is performing well on farms, too, with Jeremy and Louise Dyson, who 50:50 sharemilk 600 cows near Waimate in Canterbury, sowing it last year
“The production of the Ansa has been outstanding, with the paddock being on a grazing rotation between 18-21 days, often with pre-grazing covers of over 3100kg DM/ha.”
Bronte perennial ryegrass has similar growth to Ansa but a later heading date, finer leaf and even higher tiller density.
For more information visit www.dlfseeds.co.nz
