United Kingdom
June 9, 2016
The Aber High Sugar Grass AberZeus, an intermediate diploid perennial ryegrass, was a highlight at Royal Welsh Grassland, announced as the latest variety from the award–winning IBERS Aberystwyth University breeding programme to enter the independent Recommended Grass and Clover Lists (England and Wales).
Marketed by Germinal, AberZeus excels under grazing management, with an overall dry matter yield of 106% against control varieties and a D–value of 77.5. This combination of production and quality gives AberZeus an unrivalled ME yield of 107% of controls.
It is also a strong performer both early and late in the grass growing season, with spring production at 116% of controls and autumn production at 114% of controls. AberZeus has been bred for improved ground cover and persistency, alongside production and quality, and has good resistance to the common diseases of grassland.
“AberZeus is a top–ranking intermediate heading perennial ryegrass across the spectrum of criteria covered by the Recommended List,” says Ben Wixey, national agricultural sales manager for Germinal GB. “IBERS’ grass breeders have used their distinctive half sibling recurrent selection methodology to build on the strengths of earlier varieties, like AberWolf, to improve traits that we know are as important to farmers as production and quality – in this case ground cover and persistency.
“The variety is one of the highest on the list for resistance to Crown Rust and, whilst sufficient data is as yet not available for an official ranking, it is performing well against Drechslera also.
“AberZeus is the latest variety to emerge from the long term breeding programme at IBERS that is focused on quality traits (most notably higher water soluble carbohydrate) alongside continued dry matter yield and strong agronomic performance.
“We expect AberZeus to feature strongly in Germinal’s Aber High Sugar Grass mixtures from spring 2017.
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