Three New Zealand selections of paspalum were compared as spaced plants with 13 unselected New Zealand populations and 16 overseas lines. Characters assessed were productivity, growth habit, heading date, number of inflorescences, anther colour, and disease incidence. The 3 selections had consistently greater productivity, were more erect, were later flowering, and had greater numbers of inflorescences than all other lines. Most overseas lines were more productive than the unselected New Zealand populations. Productivity within lines was uniform, although a few plants with either substantially less or greater productivity occurred. Most plants had purple anthers, but one line was yellow anthered and a few off-type plants with different anther colour occurred in some other lines. The relationships between productivity, plant habit, ploidy level, and anther colour are discussed.
Perennial ryegrass pastures infected with or free of the endophyte (Neotyphodium lolii) were compared for growth and health of young grazing cattle. Heat stress, indicated by excessive salivation, was observed on several occasions among cattle grazing endophyte-infected ryegrass, but there were no differences between groups in body temperature. Liveweight gains were generally slow and inconsistent. During one period of rapid liveweight gain in March-April 1997, heifers grazing endophytefree pastures gained 7 kg more than heifers grazing infected pasture. Taking data from three four-week grazing periods in summer and autumn, liveweight change of cattle grazing endophyte-free pastures showed a consistent advantage over cattle grazing endophyte-infected ryegrass. Significant differences in serum prolactin were recorded on two occasions, and on one day in February 1998 weaner bulls grazing infected ryegrass were breathing significantly faster than their counterparts on endophyte-free pasture. These results can be compared with previous reports that endophyte status of ryegrass pastures has little effect on grazing cattle, and contrast with the published literature for tall fescue. Keywords: liveweight gain, Neotyphodium lolii, perennial ryegrass, ryegrass endophyte
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