Tower is a unique grass that overcomes the limitations often found with perennial ryegrass.
Tower is a soft and palatable grass, that animals prefer to eat over ryegrass at trial sites.  This makes Tower easy to manage and results in excellent animal performance in beef cattle, lambs, and dairy cows.  So you get all the things you would like from a good perennial ryegrass, but you also get much better drought tolerance and persistence.
The drought tolerance and autumn/winter recovery come from its deep and large root system (over 1 metre), and Tower Protek is tolerant of all insects known to have significant impact on ryegrass, including; grass grub, porina, black beetle, Argentine stem weevil and root aphid.
Tower is suited to all fertile soils in New Zealand, and even has better tolerance of wet soils and flooding than ryegrass, and soils are less likely to get pugged once it is fully established.

Gala is a versatile species for use on free-draining soils, in areas with summer-dry conditions. Compared with prairie grass, the dense, fine-tillered growth ensures persistence under harsher climatic and grazing conditions. Farms in the dry eastern regions benefit from the rapid autumn recovery, good winter and early-spring growth, and persistence under close grazing.

For optimum establishment, Gala grazing brome should be sown at no less than 25 kg/ha, at a depth of 5-15mm, into free draining soils above 10oC. Where possible, cross-drilling and rolling will promote greater ground cover. It is ideally mixed with other dryland species, particularly sub clover.

Gala grazing brome is tolerant of moderate grass grub and Argentine stem weevil feeding, but does not perform well in wet, heavy soils.

Gala grazing brome is a short plant, and production potential is maximised when the pasture is regularly grazed, as when left it rarely grows above 15cm. The endophytefree status ensures safe summer and early-autumn grazing. Gala grazing brome should not be taken for supplementary feed.

Enhanced inter-species benefits – palatability, digestibility, high Dry Matter and persistence get the best of both species
Meadow fescues (a different species to tall fescue) are known for their higher quality and palatability. When present in pasture mixes, livestock tend to graze them preferentially.
The introduction of meadow fescue genetics into perennial ryegrass has taken pasture breeding to a new level in quality.
Ultra exhibits the high yield performance and persistence of perennial ryegrass, coupled with the superior pasture quality and palatability of meadow fescue.

PASTURE QUALITY
Pasture Quality
To achieve high stock performance, maintaining high pasture quality is essential. The quality of pasture is a combination of its level of digestibility, palatability, metabolisable energy and clean leaf area. Through its unique parentage, Ultra provides all these benefits. And being later heading (+20 days), Ultra maintains its pasture quality for longer into spring.
Evidence clearly shows that stock simply prefer Ultra.

HIGH YIELD PERFORMANCE OVER ALL FOUR SEASONS
High yields
In trials and on farms throughout New Zealand, Ultra has shown consistently higher yields across seasons, years and regions.
A key feature of Ultra is its very high growth rates in late winter, early spring; providing feed when it is most needed.
The combination of high late winter, early spring growth, and high pasture quality, maintained for longer into spring, enables potentially higher livestock performance.

CLEAN, HEALTHIER PLANT LEAF AREA
Clean healthy leaf area
Plant disease can dramatically reduce DM yield and acceptance by livestock, resulting in lost animal Performance potential. Very heavy selection pressure has been placed on disease resistance during the breeding development of Ultra, which can be easily seen by its clean leaf area in the paddock.
The result: Cleaner, healthier foliage which is highly palatable to stock and capable of producing high dry matter yields.

Features

• Superior yield performance across seasons, years and regions

• Superior winter, early spring growth

• High pasture quality (ME, digestibility and palatability)

• High livestock performance potential

• Animal safe (no grass staggers)

• Strong disease resistance

• Late heading (+20 days) with low aftermath heading

• NZ bred for NZ conditions

• Suitable for all livestock types

Perun sets the standards when it comes to high yielding fast establishing festulolium.
Perun is a Tetraploid Festulolium derived from crosses between Italian ryegrass and Meadow fescue. From its ryegrass parent it gets fast establishment, forage quality and palatability. From its meadow fescue parent it gets a deeper root system and extended performance in summer heat and drought.

Forage Yield
In forage yield trials, Perun typically has the highest first year DM yield and then remains in the highest group in the following years. Perun will produce more forage than perennial ryegrass, while slightly lower in energy content. When looking at lbs of milk/acre, Perun is the winner.

Forage Quality
The palatability of Perun is high.

Adaption
Perun has a leafy upright growth pattern, producing forage that is very palatable and digestible. Perun is an excellent replacement or compliment for ryegrass, and or meadow fescue. Consider Perun when you need a fast-starting high forage-quality grass for silage or pasture. It can be mixed with legumes or used as a pure stand. It can be used as a nurse crop when establishing alfalfa; or interseeded into weak winter damaged stands.
Festuloliums are best adapted to soils with high fertility and moisture. Perun is very responsive to nitrogen.

Features
Growth Habit: Perennial Bunch
Establishment Rate: 7-10 days
Nitrogen Required:Very High >120 lbs/ac
pH Range: 5-8
Minimum Rainfall: L >30 inches
Dry Matter Yireld: 3-4 tons
Regrowth: Excellent
Primary Utilisation: Grazing & Silage
Veg Repro Til Rate: High
Endophyte: No

Cocksfoot as a species has been considered a persistent option that tolerates dry conditions and insects for a long time, however many farmers noted a lack of palatability with the old varieties. Plant breeders, for many years were also focused on developing prostrate, low yielding types which demonstrated persistence but little else.
New generation cocksfoot is a much different plant to the cocksfoots of old.
“The key breeding focuses of SF Greenly were to offer longevity and production coupled with palatability. Leaf softness and digestibility were important considerations to help achieve this. While cocksfoot has often been seen as an option in low input environments the new generation types such as RAGT Greenly are very well suited to a range of environments, including high input systems. When it is supplied with the same nutrients as you have been applying to your typical perennial ryegrass pastures RAGT Greenly will impress with its quality and longevity”.
“The perceived palatability issues surrounding cocksfoot have been largely due to the cocksfoot not being supplied with sufficient nitrogen, be it artificial N as fertiliser or supplied via nitrogen fixation from a compatible legume. Selecting the correct legume companion species to be included with cocksfoot is necessary to help achieve its maximum potential, as this will be more economic than applying large amounts of nitrogen fertiliser. A particularly good pasture option is cocksfoot and subterranean clover mix. A new option this autumn is the recently released RAGT Rosabrook, a high yielding, late flowering variety. It has been specifically developed to tolerate the devastating clover pest; Red Legged Earth Mite (RLEM) which is now present in areas of New Zealand. The RAGT Rosabrook sub clover adds nitrogen to the system which is taken up by the cocksfoot, helping it stay healthy, green and therefore palatable. RAGT Rosabrook sub clover is compatible in its growth habits to cocksfoot, unlike white clover which can often be dominated by the grass component. Another option that is successfully being utilised is using RAGT lucerne instead of sub clover in mixes with cocksfoot where the pH is suitable” says James.
There are some important considerations when considering a cocksfoot based pasture this autumn, James explains a few key tips; “if you are embarking on a cocksfoot based pasture mix, ensure the ground is prepared early, left in a fallow state, which will retain moisture that will be available at sowing to suit the species being established. As with any perennial species, it is important to sow into ideal conditions at the correct time. Cocksfoot sown too late will be much slower than perennial ryegrass, allowing weed invasion and insufficient legume establishment. When sowing as the main grass component, keep sowing rates higher than have been typically used in the past for older type cocksfoots. New generation varieties such as RAGT Greenly have finer leaves and less tendency to clump than older varieties. Consider 6 – 8 kg/ha of RAGT Greenly combined with 10 kg/ha of RAGT Rosabrook subterranean clover. If combining RAGT Greenly with other grass components as part of a permanent mix then sow between 1 and 3 kg/ha depending on what other grass components are used”.