Journal article
Nutritive characteristics of perennial ryegrass cultivars: have they changed over time?
AR Lawson, K Giri, ME Rogers, SK Muir, KB Kelly, K Rentsch, S Chandra, JL Jacobs
ANIMAL PRODUCTION SCIENCE | CSIRO PUBLISHING | Published : 2020
DOI: 10.1071/AN18547
Abstract
Improvement in nutritive characteristics resulting from breeding perennial ryegrass (PRG) cultivars used in Australia from the 1970s to the present day was quantified in a grazed field experiment in south-western Victoria. The experiment was sown in May 2014 with measurements undertaken over 3 years. The experiment contained 36 PRG treatments (cultivar-endophyte combinations), which were replicated four times, with herbage nutritive characteristics measured at each grazing. The treatments differed in estimated metabolisable energy (ME), crude protein and neutral detergent fibre (NDF) concentrations at each harvest date. The decade of cultivar release had little effect on the ME or the NDF co..
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Funding Acknowledgements
We acknowledge Kevin Smith for assistance with the initial project development and DJPR technical staff at Warrnambool for the setup and conduct of the research. We also thank PGG Wrightson, Heritage Seeds, Valley Seeds and David Chapman for the provision of seed, the staff of PGG Wrightson who assisted with sowing the site, and the Landholder for the provision of the land and their dairy herd. This work was funded by the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions and Dairy Australia.