Annual Ryegrass Establishment

During autumn and winter, perennial pasture growth is normally slowed or stopped due to the colder conditions and shorter daylight hours. Over this period there is usually a feed gap, which is usually filled with either hay or silage.

In many cases, when conditions are suitable, planting an annual forage crop such as Ryegrass will always be the cheaper option as it is usually cheaper to grow feed than to buy feed.

Annual ryegrass is best sown on the North Coast from the third week in March until late April. If conditions are not suitable at the time ryegrass can be planted in May but yield and establishment will be negatively impacted.

Typical sowing rates for early maturing tetraploid Ryegrass are 35kg/ha for drilled plantings and 40 to 50kg/ha for broadcast plantings. It can also be beneficial to add a legume component to your ryegrass such as red or white clovers, to provide good growth over the colder months, as well as fix nitrogen naturally from the atmosphere in to your soil.

Most ryegrass is sown via broadcasting seed over an existing perennial pasture, which can provide good results providing seed-soil contact is maximised and existing growth or hat of perennial species is kept to a minimum.

This can be done by grazing paddocks hard to four to five cm length, broadcasting seed then allowing cattle in for four to six hours to trample in seed or follow broadcasting of seed by mulching to maximise seed soil contact.

For best production, ryegrass needs to be managed well after germination by allowing cattle in two weeks after germination to lightly nip off any perennial pastures to prevent shading of seedlings. This period must be no more than four hours.

Before a rainfall event, after first grazing, it is advisable to fertilise with a nitrogen based fertiliser such as urea at 50kg per hectare.

The first full-grazing after this should be around the six week mark, followed up by the application of urea at 100kg per hectare. Fertiliser should be applied every second grazing, and for best results, always before rainfall. Grazing of Pastures that have had urea applied to them should not be grazed for a minimum of two weeks to avoid nitrate poisoning of stock