Want To Improve Grass Quality And Utilisation On Your Farm This Year?

The profitability of Irish grass-based farming systems is not only dependent on how much grass is grown, but how much of that grass is utilised by the animal.

Grass utilised is the amount of grass consumed by the animal to produce milk or kilograms depending on your enterprise. Grazed grass is a relatively cheap feed at around €70/t DM but actual grass utilization on farm is quite variable, and low, at between 5 and 12 tons DM per hectare. Put another way, the majority of farms are only using at most 75% of the grass grown each year!

So how do we improve that utilisation figure and get it up over 80% and make our farms some more money?

The simplest way is to reseed, and reseed with varieties that are bred to improve grass utilisation, grass quality and overall ease of management. Practical experience shows that certain grass varieties are easier to graze than others and this has been demonstrated in research trials at Teagasc too. Thus, variety and mixture selection when reseeding has a considerable effect on how much grass is utilised on farm.

At DLF we have been selecting the best varieties for grazing off our Grass Partner Grazing Trials across the country. What we consistently see in these trial is that Late Tetraploid varieties are best for grazing; offering the best quality grass with the highest utilisation figures and leaving the lowest grazeouts for easy management.

Grass Mixtures Designed To Increase Grass Utilisation And Quality

DLF varieties are leading the way in the PPI grazing utilisation category with Nashota, Xenon, Aspect and Anurad filling the top places for Grazing Utilisation – each have 5 stars for grazing utilisation. We have even produced a new grazing Late Tetraploid, from our Partner Farm grazing trial that has proved a massive success for Irish farmers.

DLF’s local R&D producing specialist grass varieties for Irish farmers

Because of their superior performance in grazing systems, we have increased the % of Tetraploid varieties in all our grazing mixtures in recent years. If you would like to improve grass quality and utilisation on your farm then one of our high Tetraploid grass mixtures is essential.

Kiwi Grazer

A brand new mixture featuring the top performing variety in our on-farm grazing trials – Vast. If you want better grass utilisation than your neighbors, this mix is for you.

• High Tetraploid mixture with only the best grazing varieties to maximize grass utilization and quality

• Nashota, Anurad and Vast are top grazing Tetraploids with exceptional spring growth scores for early turnout

• Bowie is included to add groundcover and extend grazing quality into the summer

4N Grazer

4N Grazer is DLF’s best-selling grass mixture. It is a unique all-Tetraploid, 100% 5-star utilisation varieties mixture designed for maximum grass utilisation.

• Contains only 5-star varieties for maximum utilisation and easy grass management

• All late heading varieties to maintain grass quality well into the growing season

• NxGen Tetraploids give diploid density without reducing graze-out quality

• This mixture is All Killer-No Filler and won’t be beat for quality grazing

For more information on selecting the best grass mixtures for your farm in 2026 Get in Touch Today! With your local DLF expert.