Pastures- rye grass-perenial vs annual etc.

[Triple V]

G'day all,

Have been looking to bump our pastures along a bit so, for starters, does anyone want to comment on the case/s for or against using perenial & annual rye grass as part of a pasture seed mix?
Or is it the best shot to incorporate both?
Are there any particular varieties to use or to avoid?
I've also been getting conflicting information re: their (perneial & annual) respective abilities to withstand various grazing rates, handle overtly wet and overtly dry weather etc.
Not just rye grass either by the way, any thoughts on pastures in general most welcome.

[Danno]

Been doing a bit of home work for similar reasons Jamie and don't pretend to be the full bottle on this subject.
The DPI site has bucket loads of info about soils and grasses. With regards to ryegrass mixes it sounds like that is a subject all on it's own.
Cheers,
Dan

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/field/pastures-and-rangelands/pasture-mix

[Triple V]

Isn't it ever. Stacks of conflicting/confusing/non-helpful info on the various seed company websites too.
What have you found to be the general per Kg or per 25kg bag or whatever price range for seed Danno?
I've also had some pretty widely varying ideas there too. Cheers for the website. Most appreciated.

Regards

Jaimie

[Danno]

Still getting over the shock from Kikuyu seed prices...........I might put our little 23 acres under Kikuyu seed production I think!!

Haven't got a handle on which we should be looking at yet Jamie, the more I read the more I think soil test will be a good starting point.

[Triple V]

Good idea. I've been giving serious consideration to fencing off a piece of ground, getting hold of a small amount of various single seed varieties and a couple of mixtures and running my own field trials just to see what strikes, what doesn't, how quickly/slowly/not at all it grows etc.
If the $ I've been quoted are correct an applicable mix runs between about $10.00 and $13.50 per kg with single species varying between $6 and $10 or thereabouts.
I've also been given the skinny by a bloke who would definitely know to stick with low tillered diploid perenial ryegrasses. Go look that up in your Funk & Wagnalls.;)

[Greg Hando]

Was talking to my brother about Rye grass and his opinion is Roundup ( he grow's a lot of crop ) But he would go for annual Rye grass for feed up here with the drier summer's but down where you are he said either or( perrenial or annual ) and also reckoned clover along with cooch may be a good option as well as Rye and said also don't forget to let it seed each season and to top dress with DAP each year or even single super and don't eat paddock's off too much.