MEADOW FESCUE
A productive, perennial and nutritive grass that is tolerant of heavy moist soils and low fertility.
It is slower to establish than perennial ryegrass, but once established is persistent and will produce well.
The digestibility is similar to perennial ryegrass, but the soluble carbohydrate is lower.
It will get smothered out by perennial ryegrass in medium to high nitrogen systems, but seems to work well with ryegrass under a low nitrogen regime.

TALL FESCUE
A persistent, perennial species, which grows well in all conditions.
It is productive and responsive to nitrogen, but is slow to establish.
Its use is limited mainly to crop dryers as its forage is both low digestibility and low palatability.

RED FESCUE
A low yielding, but palatable and persistent creeping grass, that is tolerant of low fertility and cold conditions.
It tends to be used in mixtures for hill reseeding, where other species are at the limit of their range.

WHITE CLOVER
A major constituent in many long term leys, white clover is a persistent, palatable legume, which will fix atmospheric nitrogen.
Varieties are compared by leaf size, generally the larger the leaf the higher the yield and the lower the persistence.
White clover is an excellent source of protein and minerals. It has a protein content of 27.5% compared to grass at 17.5%. It is also a valuable source of magnesium and calcium to the grazing animal.
White clover protein is less rumen degradable than grass protein; consequently white clover in either silage or grazed grass will improve animal performance.
Animals find white clover highly palatable, they will eat forage containing white clover more quickly with less expenditure of energy due to the structure of clover allowing speeding up of the digestive process.
The inclusion of white clovers within the ley helps to minimise the risk of disease infection in the sward.
White clover will improve sward density, soil surface protection and moisture retention, and its creeping growth habit fills any gaps that are opening in the sward.
Clover in a sward reduces the decline in the digestibility, typically 0.15 units per day, compared to 0.5 units per day for a ryegrass sward. This helps to maintain herbage quality if there are delays in harvesting or grazing.
Trials with dairy cows have shown that that for each 10% increase of the white clover content of the pasture, milk yield increases of between 0.3 and 0.45 kg per cow per day.
Therefore a sward which has a 30% clover content, which is an average for mid summer, can be producing up to 1.35 kgs of milk per cow per day more from the clover.
In trials, beef cattle fed clover/grass silage showed 16% higher live weight gain over those fed on grass silage.

RED CLOVER
Grown mainly for conservation usually as part of 2 to 3 year leys with hybrid and tetraploid perennial ryegrasses.
Improves the overall protein content of the conserved forage.
Swards can be grazed, usually in the autumn by fat lambs. Access by breeding stock should be limited due to the oestrogen levels of red clover.

LUCERNE
Grown for conservation, either clamped or baled silage, or if conditions are right, hay.
A perennial crop, will persist for up to 4 years, giving 3 or 4 cuts per year.
Luceene is an excellent feed for dairy cows, giving higher milk and protein yields.
Lucerne silage analysis gives crude protein content of between 19% and 22%.
It is a good source of rumen undegradable protein as well as essential minerals.
Very high yielding, in trials producing 4 tonnes per acre fresh yield more than perennial ryegrass.
Fixes its own nitrogen, requires only potash, sulphur and small amounts of phosphate.