Grass identification

• Most effort by plant breeders has concentrated on PRG
• Establishes rapidly, even from autumn sowing
• High yields in first harvest year
• High sugar content makes it good for silage-making
• Produces dense and persistant swards and is useful for long-term leys and establishing permanent pasture

Identification tips

• Large, dark green, tufted plant
• Hairless leaf blades folded in shoot
• Shoots at the base of the plant have a red-purple colour
• Flower head is flattened, with spikelets on opposite sides of the stem
• Spikelets are awnless, unlike Italian ryegrass

Photograph courtesy and copyright of Oliver Seeds.

• Produces heavy crops of silage or hay
• Useful for short-term leys of one to three years
• Long growing season gives oppurtunity for ‘early-bite’ grazing, followed by leafy hay or silage cut
• Relatively easy to establish

Identification tips

• Large, stout, fast-growing and densely tufted plant with red bases to the shoots
• Dark green, hairless leaf blades rolled in stem
• Flower head is flattened with spikelets arranged alternateley on opposite sides of the stem
• Spikelets are awned, unlike perennial ryegrass

Photograph courtesy and copyright of Oliver Seeds.

• Better ground cover and longer-lived than IRG
• Good winter hardiness and disease resistance
• Midseason digestibility better than IRG, but poorer than PRG
• First-year yields lower than IRG, but yield improves in second and third year
• Potentially more drought-resistant than IRG
• Suits being grown along with red clover

Photography courtesy and copyright of NIAB.

• Grows at lower temperatures than ryegrass so can be good for early-season grazing, especially in cold, late springs
• Good midseason growth can fill the gap when ryegrass growth falters
• Good winter hardiness and ground cover
• Can be slow to establish and yields are likely to be lower than PRG
• Best used in cooler, wetter areas

Identification tips

• A light greyish-green, tuft-forming plant with short rhizomes
• Leaves are rolled in the bud and have a twisted top tapering to a point
• Young leaves are soft and hairless
• Bottom of the stem is generally bulbous
• The flower head looks like a cat’s tail and has two needles on every spikelet

Photograph courtesy and copyright of Oliver Seeds.

• Drought-tolerant
• Hard-wearing
• Good summer production, especially in dry conditions
• Lower quality and yields than PRG
• Early heading date

Identification tips

• Large, densely tufted plant
• Often forming large tussocks
• Coarse-looking grass often bluish-green in colour, with white ligules
• Dull green or greyish-green leaf blade which is rough, broad and sharply pointed
• Folded-in flattened shoot
• Strongly keeled
• Flower head is one-sided, usually as a triangular cluster
• Spikelets are small, flattened and condensed into oval-shaped clusters

Photograph courtesy and copyright of Oliver Seeds.

Identification tips

• Tufted, very hairy plant
• Pale greyish-green leaves narrowing to a fine point
• Rolled leaves in the stem, very hairy and velvety to the touch
• Basal leaf sheaths have pinkish-red stripes
• Flower heads are whitish, pale green, pinkish or purple
• No rhizomes

Photograph courtesy and copyright of Oliver Seeds.

Identification tips

• Small, pale green, loosely tufted plant
• Blade often crinkled or puckered and hairless, with boat-shaped tip
• Blade is slightly keeled, with ‘tramlines’, and is folded in shoot
• Flowering head is branched and spreading, triangular in outline
• Spikelets are small and awnless

• One year of production only
• Very high-yielding
• Used for early grazing and cutting, but quality can be poor

• Tall or meadow fescues can be sown
• Can be crossed with ryegrasses to produce festulolium (see below)
• Yields less than ryegrass
• Useful in hill grazing or low-intensity situations

Red Fescue photograph courtesy and copyright of Oliver Seeds. 

Meadow Fescue photograph courtesy and copyright of Oliver Seeds.

• A ryegrass/fescue hybrid mix
• Lower yields than ryegrass and reduced digestibility with the addition of fescue strains
• Varieties being developed for drought tolerance, to increase water infiltration rates and reduce risk of flooding

Photography courtesy and copyright of Oliver Seeds.