Those attending this year’s Dairy Event and Livestock Show can lean how to extend the grazing season by about six weeks by using ley mixtures, which include the new Enhance Ryegrass variety, Matrix.

Farmers visiting the Sinclair McGill stand can hear how UK trials have demonstrated that Matrix mixtures can be grazed by mid February, with active growth recorded as early as January.

Matrix Enhanced Ryegrass grows at cooler temperatures than conventional ryegrass, allowing the grazing season to be extended by up to three weeks at either end of the growing season, explains Limagrain UK’s Ian Misselbrook.

“In dairy herds this can amount to a saving of £7000 a year for a 100-cow herd.”

Matrix is now available in the UK in selected Sinclair McGill seed mixtures, combined with perennial ryegrass and white clovers. These mixtures are designed for rotational grazing systems, having rapid growth and forming a dense fine-leave sward resistant to poaching.

For more information on the Dairy Event and Livestock Show, to be help on 7 and 8 September, visit www.fwi.co.uk/dels2010