THE PERFORMANCE OF DAIRY CATTLE GRAZING TWO VARIETIES OF TALL FESCUE

Two varieties of tall fescue were compared with 'Grasslands Ariki' ryegrass as feeds for lactating, and growing catmtle. In three shortterm experimeats the dairy cows grazing the different types of pasture produced similar quantities of milk and in most cases the fat and protein contents did not differ significantly. On the other hand, the exclusion of clover from the grass swards led to a lower milk production. Liveweight gains were consistently higher for yearling cattle grazing Ariki ryegrass compared with the two fescue swards. The invitro digestibility of S170 was lower than the value for G4710 but because of the high clover content of the S170 pastures animal performance was similar.