Tornado "The ultimate catch crop!"

Catch crop ryegrass for cutting and grazing

Most farmers requirement from their grass ley mixtures is obvious vigour and rapid establishment. When considering short term leys that usually involve Italian and/or Westerwolds ryegrass there is a tendency to assume that there is little difference between varieties as Italian ryegrass should be vigorous as a species anyway.

“Its only a short term ley so just a cheap mix of Italian will do” is not an uncommon response in fact we fielded just such a query from Philip White. Oliver’s SW area manager Tony Walkers maintained that there certainly was a difference especially between unknown or outclassed material and recommended and proven products. It was decided to sow half a field with a cheap IRG blend and half with Oliver’s Tornado. The difference between the Tornado and the Catch Crop has been amazing as demonstrated in the photograph below.

So we know that the Tornado is superior in terms of germination and growth so what about yield potential?
There have been some variable prices on catch crop Italian in the market.
As you know, we test all our leys and Tornado yielded 19.5 tonnes of dry matter per hectare in year 1 and 17.5 tonnes of dry matter per hectare in year 2 – an excellent output. We do use top varieties in this mix as opposed to unlisted material.
The retail price of this is £2.30 per kilo. If sown at 14 kilos per acre, the cost per acre is £32.20.

A cheap mix of Italian ryegrass varieties that are unknown or outclassed would have a lower performance level with regard to yield, disease resistance and winter hardiness. We would expect 10% less yield off a mix like this compared to Tornado so output would likely be 17.5 tonnes in year one and 15.5 tonnes in year two. This is a difference of two tonnes of dry matter per hectare per year. Assuming a big bale of silage weighs 600 kilos, this means potentially, you get 3.3 big bales extra per hectare (or 1.33 per acre) from the Tornado. A bale is allegedly worth around £22 today, so the extra output would be worth £29.26 per acre (£73.15/ha).

The cheap Italian ryegrass mix may be sold at £1.80 per kilo (£25.20 per acre). The extra cost of the Tornado is £7.00 per acre; the extra output is £29.26 per acre, therefore you would be £22.26 per acre better off with Tornado. Put another way, the “cheap” mix is actually costing you £25.20 as seed plus £22.26 per acre in lost output = £47.46 per acre or £3.39 per kilo!

If we factor in disease problems and reduced quality then the Tornado has an even greater advantage