Grand Daddy forage tetraploid perennial ryegrass was bred for highly productive pastures and hay. Perennial ryegrass is the premier forage grass, serving as the basis for all the grazing livestock agriculture found in Northwestern Europe and New Zealand. European and New Zealand grazers have long relied on ryegrasses for their highly palatable composition, which provides their cattle, sheep and horses with highly digestible, nutritious forage. The verdant green pastoral scenes typical of Great Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, France and Germany are based primarily on the grazing of perennial and annual ryegrasses.

Ryegrass is the cool season grass specie which provides the highest levels of animal performance when animal performance is measured as either milk, lamb or beef. European grazers have for generations managed their herds Using a system of rotational grazing of small highly productive pastures. Rotational grazing is now one of the "hottest" topics in North American dairy farmer meetings especially in the Northeastern and mid-Western states. U.S. dairy farmers are rapidly changing their cattle management techniques with the incorporation of rotational pasture grazing for maximizing profitability in these times of depressed milk prices.

Grand Daddy has been bred to be free of the fungal endophytic organism that can cause animal stress, staggers and general poor unthrifty performance. Because of its endophytic free condition, Grand Daddy is an excellent horse forage. Horses in Europe and New Zealand thrived on perennial ryegrass pastures for centuries.

Grand Daddy has been bred with resistance to the principal diseases which infect lesser perennial ryegrasses. This includes rusts, leaf spots and blights, mildews and brown patch any of these foliar diseases will reduce forage quality, animal palatability, and ultimately animal forage intake and animal performance.

Grand Daddy has the merits which characterize all ryegrasses--large seed, rapid germination, excellent seedling vigor and stand establishment. It can be relied upon to produce high quality forage very rapidly, given adequate rainfall and cool growing conditions. Ryegrass will grow best under cool. Moist conditions such as is found in spring and fall in the N.E. and Midwestern states. Ryegrasses become dormant under very hot, dry, droughty conditions, but generally recover rapidly after rainfall and cooler temperatures. Ryegrasses grow best on fertile soils with adequate moisture. Ryegrass responds exceptionally well to irrigation. It is often used for the removal of nitrates from sewage and manure holding systems. Ryegrass can utilize more nitrogen than any other cool season grass. It is a good choice for intensive water removal by spraying or irrigation systems from dairy manure holding systems.

Grand Daddy is an excellent component for pasture mixtures. It will combine excellently with red clover and alfalfa in mixed hay. Grand Daddy can be used to extend the life of thinning alfalfa pastures by over seeding. It can easily be over sown using a broadcast fertilizer spreader when soil conditions are moist. Ryegrass hay is extremely palatable and is made like any other grass hay crop. Ryegrass makes excellent grass silage. It can be sown in late winter on frozen soil and in late summer following corn silage harvest. Its rapid growth provides excellent fall gazing following the corn silage crop. It will again produce well in early spring before the field is reworked for the following crop of corn or soybeans.

Grand Daddy is a top candidate for progressive livestock producers.