Nutritive characteristics of perennial ryegrass cultivars: have they changed over time?
A. R. Lawson A F , K. Giri B , M. E. Rogers A , S. K. Muir
C , K. B. Kelly A * , K. Rentsch D , S. Chandra A and J. L. Jacobs E
A Agriculture Victoria, Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, 255 Ferguson Road, Tatura, Vic. 3616, Australia.
B Agriculture Victoria, Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, AgriBio Centre, 5 Ring Road, Bundoora, Vic. 3083, Australia.
C Agriculture Victoria, Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, 915 Mt Napier Road, Hamilton, Vic. 3300, Australia.
D Agriculture Victoria, Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, 703 Raglan Parade, Warrnambool, Vic. 3280, Australia.
E Agriculture Victoria, Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, Ellinbank Dairy Centre, 1301 Hazeldean Road, Ellinbank, Vic. 3821, Australia.
F Corresponding author. Email: alister.lawson@ecodev.vic.gov.au
Animal Production Science 60(1) 127-132 https://doi.org/10.1071/AN18547
Submitted: 31 August 2018 Accepted: 18 January 2019 Published: 13 February 2019
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 concentration of the cultivars released from 1970s onward. Early season diploids had a lower ME concentration than did later-maturing diploid cultivars (11.0 vs 11.4 MJ/kg DM), predominantly due to a lower ME concentration in late spring and early summer (10.3 vs 11.1 MJ/kg DM). The tetraploid cultivars had a higher ME concentration (11.8 vs 11.4 MJ/kg DM) and a lower NDF (480 vs 505 g/kg DM) concentration than did the mid- and late-season diploid cultivars. These differences are likely to be of economic importance at the farm level.
Additional keywords: genetic gain, herbage, metabolisable energy, pasture, plant breeding.
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