Korean Journal of Agricultural Science ISSN:2466-2402(Print) 2466-2410(Online) 농업과학연구

This experiment was carried out to breed a medium maturing variety of Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) in Grassland and Forage Crops Division, National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration (RDA), Cheonan from 2019 to 2020. An Italian ryegrass variety, IR 604 is a tetraploid variety with green in leaf color and has half-erect growth habit in late autumn and erect growth habit in early spring, IR 604 was on May 17 in heading date as a medium maturing variety. Also, IR 604 was longer by 11 cm in flag leaf length and longer by 1.3 cm in plant height than those of the control variety, Kowinner, respectively. IR 604 was also thicker by 1.0 mm in stem thickness and strong in winter hardness. Dry matter (DM) yield (11,036 kg/ha) of IR 604 was 16.6% higher than that of Kowinner. Total digestible nutrient (TDN), crude protein (CP) and relative feed value (RFV) of IR 604 were 60.4, 13.8% and 100.6 which are 1.4, 3.3%, 7.7 higher than those of Kowinner, respectively. Acid detergent fiber (ADF) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) of IR 604 were 35.5 and 56.7% which are 1.3 and 3.6% lower than those of Kowinner, respectively.