Abuzz
Tetraploid annual ryegrass
- Fast establishment
- Late summer/autumn sown option for high quality and quantity autumn, winter and spring feed
- Ideal between maize crops
- Quick early feed for grazing animals or silage production
- Offers flexibility into a system
Abuzz is the next generation tetraploid annual ryegrass replacing the legendary cultivar, Winter Star II. Plant breeders have selected a new cultivar with superior dry matter production and disease tolerance relative to its predecessor, Winter Star II.
Abuzz has the ability to provide valuable feed from late autumn into spring and early summer. It has excellent recovery from grazing, holds on till summer, and can also be used for silage.
Waikato trial results
In a central Waikato trial, Abuzz demonstrated its rapid establishment and strong cool season growth.
Sown on the 29th of April 2020 at Ruakura, Abuzz produced the greatest dry matter yield over the trial period from autumn to late spring compared to Hogan, Zoom, Dash and Sultan varieties.
When continued through to the 1st of December, Abuzz showed its high spring production potential, producing the most dry matter during late spring with Abuzz plots growing over 3 tDM/ha.
Economic comparison
At the Waipukurau, Hawke’s Bay trial site, Abuzz was compared to Tama annual ryegrass.
During this trial period from March to the end of September Abuzz produced 1,634 kgDM/ha more than Tama, highlighting the advancements the breeders behind Abuzz have made over older material.
An economic comparison between varieties showed the value of Abuzz on farm. After differences in seed cost and dry matter production were accounted for Abuzz produced an economic advantage of $334/ha over Tama annual ryegrass.
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“We’ve done a lot of trial work, particularly on our home block, comparing the different varieties of grass and we’ve been really confident that we’ve been getting great performance out of Winter Star and Winter Star II, so it was really a no brainer to have a look at Abuzz. In the trial work it looked promising to us and in the field here its showing its worth”.