Perennial Ryegrass pastures dominate the reseeding scene in the country at the moment, according to UCD’s Dr Tommy Boland.

Speaking at the Irish Grassland Association’s Sheep Conference in Co. Wicklow, Boland said that Perennial Ryegrass is used in 95% of all reseeding carried out in Ireland.

The UCD Senior Lecturer said Perennial Ryegrass swards work well as they have the potential to support more that 300 days grazing, but this can vary from year-to-year.

“We are going to get year-to-year variation and we are seeing variation with the cold spring,” he said.

Boland also said the Perennial Ryegrass swards are capable of supporting high stocking rates when Nitrogen is applied and the soil fertility levels are maintained.

One of the reasons why Perennial Ryegrass swards work so well is they respond very well to Nitrogen fertiliser inputs.

“But, that also means they have a relatively high Nitrogen requirement,” he said.

Problems with Perennial Ryegrass swards

However, despite the benefits of Perennial Ryegrass swards, Boland said farmers can see issues in terms of trace element nutrition of their flocks or herds grazing these swards.

He said that the trace element deficiencies are largely linked to the under-lying soil type, but it maybe has something to do with how well the Perennial Ryegrass takes the elements from the soil.

Boland also said that including alternative forages such as chicory and plantain in grazing swards may have a role to play in parasite control in the future.

I think a major problem in sheep farming at the moment, and it is only going to become a bigger problem into the future, is controlling parasites.

Boland said that this is only going to worsen in light of the anthelmintic resistance that is being seen across the world.

Boland also spoke about the early results from UCD’s multi-species grazing trial, which showed that lambs grazing multi-species swards reached slaughter 25 days earlier than lambs on Perennial Ryegrass only swards.

Boland said that higher performance seen by the lambs grazing multi-species swards was most likely due to a lower worm burden, which is probably caused by the inclusion of plantain and chicory.