Ryegrass PLUS

Ryegrass PLUS is a hybrid ryegrass developed by crossing Meadow Fescue (Festuca pratense) or Tall Fescue (Festuca arundinacea) with perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) or Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum). There are two types of hybrid grasses; Ryegrass PLUS and Tall fescus PLUS and both types belong to the species festulolium.

When crossing multiple species it enables us to combine the best properties from each grass. The fescues contribute qualities such as high dry matter yield, resistance to cold, drought tolerance and persistence, while ryegrass is contributes with rapid establishment, good spring growth, good digestibility, sugar content and palatability. The individual festulolium varieties contain various combinations of these qualities, but all are substantially better yielding than their parent lines.

Ryegrass-PLUS varieties from DLF includes:

• Perun
• Perseus
• Hostyn
• Becva
• Lofa
• Paulita
• Achilles

​Morphologically, these varieties resemble italian ryegrass but with a persistency of up to four years. This type is suitable for both cutting and grazing.

The object of the DLF Breeding program is to retain the italian ryegrass yield and quality combined with resistance to rust and xanthomonas plus winterhardiness and persistency from the fescue. 

In general, ryegrass-plus can be characterized by:

• High seedling vigor
• Very early spring growth
• Very high yield
• Slightly lower energy concentration and sugar content than ryegrass
• Tendency for heading in regrowth
• Upright growth
• Better persistency than their ryegrass parent lines
• Susceptible to winter kill in absence of snow cover