Grassland – Part 2SPECIES
 Grass
species
 Merits of Grass
 Between
200 and 300 species of grass exist in
Ireland but only a small number are of any real
importance to the farmer.
 Some of the common species found in the
different types of grassland are shown below:
Hill and Mountain Grazing:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Heathers
Purple Moor grass
Bent Grasses*
Sheep’s Fescue*
Creeping Red Fescue*
Meadow Grasses*
Permanent Grassland:
Bent
Grasses*
Fescues*
Meadow
Grasses*
Cocksfoot*
Meadow
Fescue*
Timothy*
Perennial
White
Ryegrass***
Clover**
Leys:

Cocksfoot*

Timothy*

Perennial Ryegrass***

Short Duration Ryegrasses***

White Clover**

Red Clover**

The asterisks determine the palatability and
productivity of the species.
Grassland in Ireland is used solely for feeding
livestock.
 Therefore the agricultural importance of any
grassland is measured in three ways: Productivity,
Palatability and Digestibility.
 Productivity refers to the ability of a grass to
produce large amount of herbage.
 It also refers to the ability to respond to a fertiliser.
 Perennial ryegrass has the highest productivity while
mat grasses have low productivity.
 Palatability refers to taste etc, in other words how
appealing the grass is!
 Sheep and cattle are selective eaters and will only eat
the most palatable grass.

 Therefore
the sward should be made up of
appealing varieties.
 PRG and IRG are the most palatable grasses
followed by cocksfoot.
 Digestibility is a rating of the ability of an
animal to digest a certain feed.
 It is measured in terms of DMD (Dry Matter
Digestibility) – how much of the dry matter the
animal can digest.
 Digestibility of grass varies throughout the
grass’s year also.
 Before flowering the DMD may be 80 – 90%, and
after flowering as little as 50%.
Type
Productivity
Palatability
Digestibility
Persistence
PRG



Very
IRG



Bienniel
Timothy



Poor
Cocksfoot



Good
Meadow
Fescue



Meadow
Grass
Meadow
Foxtail






Bent



Poor


Perennial Ryegrass is a persistent, aggressive,
dominant grass.
It will take over a sward if:
1. Fertility Levels are high
2. Grazing is extensive




It is the most palatable, most digestible and
most productive of the grass varieties.
It is ideal for grazing and for silage.
Makes up to 85% of the total grass seed sold
each year to Irish Farmers.
It has a shiny dark green colour, which gives
the sward a glistening sheen.

Similar in appearance to perennial ryegrass but has
awned seeds

A more erect growth habit and less aggressive growth
pattern.

It is however the highest producing grass, nearly
20% more than perennial in the first year.

In subsequent years it begins to die back.

It is a biennial.

It is ideal for early grazing or 3-4 cuts of silage.
 Clovers
are legumes which mean that they can
fix Nitrogen.
 This generally means that they can change
atmospheric Nitrogen into forms that the soils
can absorb and use.
 Very high in protein.
 Therefore they are of huge importance to the
farmer and they improve the quality of the sward
and soil.
 However they can have a negative reaction to
artificial fertilisers that contain Nitrogen.
 They also have deep roots and spread throughout
the soil by stolons, which then inhibit weed
growth.
 While
Perennial ryegrass, Italian ryegrass and
clovers supersede all other grass species in seed
sales each year, there are other important
species.
 These include: Timothy, Cocksfoot, Meadow
Fescue and Meadow Grasses.
 These were traditionally used many years ago but
are still very important in permanent grasslands.
 Farmers should be able to recognise them and
encourage their growth.
 Use your book for more detail on these varieties.
 Below are the inflorescence of a) Timothy, b)
Meadow Fescue, c) Cocksfoot and d) Meadow
Grass
 Seed
mixtures are very different for grassland as
opposed to silage.
 In previous years it was usual practice to sow a
number of different varieties as to have a
uniform grass growth throughout the year.
 This has changed over the last number of years,
towards mainly ryegrasses and clovers.
 This is mainly due to the emergence of new
strains of perennial ryegrass, which have
different peak growth times.
 Now seed mixtures for grazing have different
strains of PRG, which have a range of heading
dates.
 This
gives the following advantages:
 Encourages uniform growth patterns
 Ensures there is always young, leafy digestible
grass available as feed.
 Makes grazing management easier – all the grass
can’t go “stemmy” at the same time.
 For silage or hay, seed mixtures contain either
strains with the same heading dates or seeds
from the same strain only.
 This is to ensure that the entire sward comes to a
head at the same time.
 This gives a sward that is all at the height of its
digestibility when cut.