OF WHAT SIGNIFICANCE IS THE PRESENCE OF POA TRIVIALIS IN RYEGRASS PASTURES?

Abstract

THE productivity of New Zealand grassland has been increased markedly by the identification, selection and improvement of ryegrass varieties through plant breeding programmes, and by the clear insight provided by pasture ecologists, into the major factors governing the productivity of ryegrass-clover associations. If the proposition is accepted that sown ryegrass-clover associations, with appropriate management, are the basis for maximum herbage productivity, then some consideration must be given to the role of any unsown species which may replace the sown species in the sward.