Festulolium fibre characteristics and digestibility as affected by maturity

This study compared the forage quality of F estulolium entries of festucoid ( H ykor) and loloid attributes ( F elopa and N orwegian candivars) with major cultivars of the parent species perennial ryegrass and meadow fescue, and with timothy. Forage NDF , i NDF , kd NDF and DDM were analysed at vegetative stage, early heading, heading and anthesis during spring growth ( SG ) and two subsequent regrowths over two production years at two locations in Norway. NDF and i NDF increased and kd NDF and DDM decreased with advancing maturity, mostly expressed in SG , with negative correlations between DDM and NDF and i NDF and ADL , and strong positive correlations with kd NDF . In SG , across years and locations, the content of NDF at heading stage was 30% higher and i NDF 400% higher in stems than in leaves, while stem kd NDF was about 50% of that in leaves. In general, timothy cv. G rindstad and F estulolium cv. H ykor had the highest NDF and iNDF and the lowest kd NDF values. L oloid entries of F estulolium were quite similar to perennial ryegrass, although the tetraploid entry proved better than the others with respect to forage quality. Regarding nutritive value, the festucoid and loloid types of F estulolium should be considered separate groups. The effect of year was more pronounced than that of location, for which the ranking of entries was quite similar. Loloid F estulolium is prone to winter damage, and, although it has higher nutritive value than the parent species, its use will depend on the conditions for winter survival.