Festulolium - high preforming grasses in all conditions

Festulolium are high preforming forage grasses and as these grasses are developed by crossing crossing Meadow Fescue (Festuca pratense) or Tall Fescue (Festuca arundinacea) with perennial ryegrass
(Lolium perenne) or Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) and combining the best from each grass species it be referred to as multipurpose grasses.

Each festulolium grass has its own characteristic they differ alot from each other and each grass has its own attibutes and can be used for different puposes.

Increase forage quality with festulolium

Looking at forage quality it will seem at first sight as festulolium has a lower quality than ryegrass and this might the case for some types of festulolium grasses, but for other festulolium grasses the forage quality will be above the level of the parental material.

Forage quality is in general very high for festulolium grasses.

Festulolium grasses with morphological appearance as italian ryegrass, perennial ryegrass or hybrid ryegrasses do in many cases have a slightly lower relative forage quality (RFQ) index and relative forage value (RFV) than ryegrass, but there is an interesting exception with the tall fescue-type festulolium Fojtan. Tall Fescue Kora is a high quality type and not indicative for tall fescue in general.

The table 1 below gives the RFQ and RFV values for samples taken from the last cutting in fall 2012 of a Eucarpia trial planted in spring 2012 at the DLF Hladke Zivotice Research Station in Czech Republic. The NIR analysis of the samples was conducted at FFR Cooperative, Lafayette, IN.