HighSugarGrass.com.au

Tom Paton Maffra, Victoria

"Costs keep going up and the best way to make money out of dairy cows is to grow a grass that feeds them properly. Our milk yield will lift 30 percent when the whole farm is in AberDart.
When you see cows taking it down to the ground then you know you have a tasty grass.
It stood up to 45 degree days in February, then four weeks of 38 degree days followed by sub-zeros in May."

Reinier van Zyl Yambuk, Victoria

"We were grazing AberDart at 2800-3000kgDM every 15 days (in spring) while other paddocks with the same fertiliser, soil and water are in a 23 day round. Fonterra supply dockets show a 1.2 litre lift per cow per day when on AberDart for four days. Milk flow was again up for the next four days when on AberDart at night."

David Bielski Mount Linton Station, Southland, NZ

"It's an awesome ryegrass . it seems to be the silver bullet for us as far as finishing lambs.
On AberMagic in early March they went from 35kg to 38.7kg in nine days (averaging 411g/day) and on AberDart went from 28.5kg to 38.4kg over 24 days (412g/day).
It's going into 400ha this summer and we plan to sow more each year."

James Aitken Yambuk, Victoria

"There's no free lunch in farming but high sugar grass is pretty close to it.
Our production from 240 cows at Yambuk went up 500 litres and would drop again when they went off the AberDart.
We planted 40ha at Omakere (Hawke's Bay sheep farm) because if it can grow like that in Australia then AberDart can grow like that in New Zealand."

Luke Anderson Yambuk, VIC

"In it's first summer we put our dry cows into AberDart and they ate it down to nothing and it fizzled out, like everything else. But as soon as that first snap of rain came in February she just freshened up like a fresh cut lawn. In spring we had taken a second silage cut because it had got too far ahead of the cows.
I am pretty much sold on high sugar grass. Their first milking off AberDart we saw a good increase. If it wasn't performing I would say so . but my cows are doing the talking for me."

Victor Rodwell Boyanup, WA

"The cows certainly eat the AberDart down harder and easier. You don't have to push them.
It has extremely dense tillering and dense drymatter content but the cows eat it down to low residuals far easier (to 700-to-850 kgDM/ha) than other grasses.
I estimate there's 20-to-25% more feed in an AberDart break. More feed means more milk."

In three zero-grazing trials involving early, mid and late lactation animals, IGER found the amount of feed nitrogen lost in the urine was reduced by up to 24% from animals fed the HSG variety.

Other research has indicated a similar effect, as in a three-year AgResearch trial in New Zealand where cows on a diet of AberDart had almost half the rumen ammonia measured in cows fed two other modern ryegrasses.

Jon Bansen  Oregon, USA

"We have been planting the HSGs for several years on our dairy. It has proven to be very persistent, productive and a cow favourite.
It has even produced well during the hot months. Our latest planting in a field that is usually a four feeding field has been extended to a five feeding field. When the cows go into that field, they have gone up in milk every time this grazing season.
Not only are we getting an extra 12 hours graze from the field but much more milk per acre when we graze the field."

Adrian Joynt  Walford and North Shropshire College, England

"The pasture consistently raising the milk level in the bulk tank was a mix of AberHSG and a compatible white clover. Production increased by 1.5 litres per cow per day when the college farm's 200-cow Friesian herd grazed AberHSG pasture."

DR DOO-HONG MIN  Ph.D. Agronomy, Forage Specialist, Upper Peninsular Experiment Station, Michigan State University, USA

"I rated the high sugar ryegrass stands today and looks pretty good. I was surprised to see these high sugar perennial ryegrasses had survived the third winter here in the Upper Peninsular. Amazing!"

Jim Simpson  Mt Gambier, SA

"AberDart's growth rate is similar by sight (to a tetraploid) but the AberDart is certainly denser.
It's better after a silage cut, which is important to us. There's less bare ground under irrigation, which means more water absorption.
The AberDart had fewer weeds and its density means it should withstand high traffic. The cows did seem to eat the AberDart more."

Glenda Hall Willow Grove, Victoria

"The AberDart is so dense, even when sown at 18kg/ha. There's few weeds and those paddocks stood out when the rest of the farm had browned off ... and they kicked in quickly when it did rain. After three years the AberDart still looks good so we put in 40ha this March (to total 70ha). The cows like it and will give an extra half to one litre of milk per cow per milking when fed AberDart. It all adds up."

AberHSG is the first commercially available high sugar grass, the most tested and the most proven in diverse farm environments.
AberHSG ryegrasses are the result of plant breeding excellence that took 20 years to develop a robust and more digestible ryegrass that increases the nitrogen use efficiency of livestock.

AberHSG cultivars have a greater content of water soluble carbohydrate (WSC), or sugar, to boost microbial activity in the rumen (stomach) during grass digestion.
The impact on cattle, sheep and deer is they can convert more grass protein into more meat, more milk.

In NZ, AgResearch reported AberDart has 7-to-13% more WSC overall than two other modern ryegrass cultivars during a three-year trial.
In the UK, the perennials AberDart and AberMagic continue to shine in independent pasture trials run by the National Institute of Agricultural Botany.

David Penfold  Willow Grove, Victoria

"I have hammered the AberDart. Its grazed hard and keeps coming back.It makes a good silage that's all leaf, and as pasture it thickens up well and maintains quality. I'm still happy. When you see the farm in summer they're the green paddocks. Our third year AberDart is really good and has very few weeds. The cows milk well off it, up by as much as 1.5 litres per cow per day. When you find a grass that's working for you, you keep using it."