- Location
- Western Oregon
Here in the grass seed capital of the world, some of us are really liking some of the new soft leaf fescues. DLF is doing some pretty cool stuff with festoliums also. Seem to be ahead of the pack using dna markers.
We have all but given up ryegrass. We use mainly cocksfoot and meadow fescue, with a bit of tall oat grass, meadow grass, plus clovers and herbs.
Not only does it yield well, it puts a lot of organic matter back into the soil with it's deep root system.
I have seen little benefit of festololiums over meadow fescue. Also the joy of cocksfoot is that it only seeds once, so if it's seeded on your first cut it comes back lush and leafy for following cuts or grazing.
Traditionaly around here they would only use late heading Ryegrass, for cutting and grazing, what has bought about this fad of putting alk this early and intermediate stuff in I don't know
Didn't know that about cocksfoot, do you find it gets tufty? Somebody told me you need enough of it in the ley and then it doesn't seem to tuft.
Never had much luck planting late stuff. Admittedly we struggle to get grass planted before late September but the lates always need patching up whereas earlies seem to grow like stink. Do you think that is a trait of late grasses or us being crap?
@Great In GrassSeed companys dont seem to push cocksfoot/ fescues, seem to have one mix in the back of the glossy catalogues.
Find ryegrass does not last long enough to make reeseeding economically viable here,any extra performance only just about pays for putting a new ley in.
Going to have to look at cocksfoot and fescues now as we are on marginal ground, who knows of a company thst sells these mixtures?
Seed companys dont seem to push cocksfoot/ fescues, seem to have one mix in the back of the glossy catalogues.
Find ryegrass does not last long enough to make reeseeding economically viable here,any extra performance only just about pays for putting a new ley in.
Going to have to look at cocksfoot and fescues now as we are on marginal ground, who knows of a company thst sells these mixtures?
I suggest you both have a look at Barenbrug's "Barmix" mixture which contains new Tall fescue varieties with their very soft leaves, very late heading and excellent dry matter production. Also the new Cocksfoot variety Bartyle This variety is very late heading but has a good spring growth, which makes it suitable in many different systems. As Bartyle starts to grow early but heads late, its harvest window is very wide. It is well adapted to grazing and because of an excellent rust and disease resistance. Bartyle produces a very palatable forage!So what to try? Festololiums, Meadow Fecsues, Cocksfoot, Timothy? We have used Cocksfoot in the mixes in the past but it was nothing special.
We always reseeded in the spring and grazed as soon as it would take stock to force tillers, open sward would be more of a problem early verities I would have thoughtDidn't know that about cocksfoot, do you find it gets tufty? Somebody told me you need enough of it in the ley and then it doesn't seem to tuft.
Never had much luck planting late stuff. Admittedly we struggle to get grass planted before late September but the lates always need patching up whereas earlies seem to grow like stink. Do you think that is a trait of late grasses or us being crap?
There's no Red Leg in it!View attachment 355908 @Great In Grass what's your view on that mix. Is the chicory,burnet,rib grass,yarrow and sheep's parsley needed? Also more white clover and drop the red for grazing?
cant stand cocksfoot! might be alright for cows but it not as palatable as rygrass and even when its short it gets stepped on and leys flat on the floor and they dont seem to eat it. Heaven help if you let it get any height as it becomes an unpalatable clump with strong stems and rusty.
Apparently it doesnt clump for the first 3 years? i guess as long as it was grazed very hard and not left to get to any height, ie taking it to a cutting height it might be controllable. Meadow fescue used to be used more than it is today.. think the problems with it are small seed and long time to get established.
Ryegrass undoutebly has the quality and paletability and nitrogen use efficiency etc but i wonder if there is scope to stress test it and find more persistent, deeper rooting and capable of keeping the quality all summer and under stress from the weather or nutrients etc etc. If other grasses can do it better there must be scope to improve. I guess its like everything kept in the lap of luxury and sold on its performance with it.. one stress in the real world (different weather/soil/nutrient status/grazing height/compaction etc) and the performance maybe less than what you reseeded from.