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Home: > Grasses: > Endophyte Options
Using Endophytes in your permanent pasture mixes improves animal health providing better animal performance, more palatable pasture, and easier pasture management.
What is Endophyte ? Endophyte is a fungus (called Neotyphodium lolii) that greatly affects animal health and performance. Endophyte is found only in ryegrasses and tall fescue. It lives completely within the plant and is only visible under a microscope. Endophyte occurs naturally, and is found in many old pastures.
Why have Endophyte ? There are many different types of Endophyte currently available and each varies in persistance, yield, and insect protection. Endophyte protects plants from a range of insects. In dry summer situations ryegrass containing endophyte consistently out-yields and persists better than ryegrass Without endophyte.
Select the types of Endophyte you would like to know more about:
Ryegrass Endophyte Options:
Tall Fescue Endophyte Options:
Ryegrass Endophyte Options:
- Without Endophyte (WE):
Without Endophyte gives good animal performance, but reduced insect resistance. Only suitable for summer wet South Island areas.
- Low Endophyte (LE):
Low Endophyte grasses provides better animal performance than High Endophyte ones but the downside of this is that it wont persist as well.
- High / Standard Endophyte (HE/SE):
High/ Standard Endophyte is still available in some older varieties. It is not recommended because it causes ryegrass staggers, depresses liveweight gains in lambs and reduces milk production in dairy cows. This type of endophyte although persists extremely well in tough conditions.
- AR1 Endophyte:
 Ryegrass with AR1 endophyte is a non-staggering endophyte that has excellent animal performance. However, the Peramine does not give good resistance against Black Beetle, and care is needed in areas with high Black Beetle numbers, such as the northern half of the North Island. AR1 endophyte has now been extensively field-tested for animal safety and productivity, and is now available commercially in a number of ryegrass cultivars.
AR1 in ryegrass gives:
- Better liveweight gains and milk production than wild-type endophyte ryegrass
- No ryegrass staggers
- No heat stress
- Less dags and flystrike
- No prolactin depression
- Excellent control of Argentine stem weevil
- Pasture productivity similar to that of wild-type endophyte ryegrass
- Better pasture persistence than endophyte-free ryegrass
- AR 37 Endophyte:
 Ryegrass with AR37 gives you simple, economical insect control and around the clock protection from most pasture pests. AR37's continual and superior insect protection ensures maximum pasture production and better pasture persistence allowing higher animal productivity.
Benefits:
- AR37 provides greater insect protection than any commercially available ryegrass endophyte.
- Provides continual protection against Argentine Stem Weevil, Adult Black Beetle, Pasture Mealy Bug, Root Aphid and Porina.
- Improves tiller density and persistence of perennial ryegrass.
- Maximises animal performance.
- Provides higher pasture productivity allowing higher animal productivity and more profit.
- Endo 5 Endophyte:
Ryegrass with Endo5 protects against a range of pasture insect pests including Argentine Stem Weevil, Adult Black beetle and Pasture Mealy Bug. Farmers using tetraploid ryegrass to improve animal productivity will choose Endo5 to increase pasture persistence.
Benefits:
- Endo5 provides excellent insect protection for tetraploid ryegrasses.
- Provides continual protection against Argentine Stem Weevil, Adult Black Beetle and Pasture Mealy Bug.
- Does not produce lolitrem B, a compound known to cause ryegrass staggers.
- AR6 Endophyte:
These are non-staggering endophytes that provide the equivalent insect protection of AR1, with the additional benefit of resistance to Black Beetle through the presence of low to moderate levels of Ergovaline. AR6 pastures are likely to persist better than AR1 pastures in areas with high Black Beetle numbers, such as the northern North Island.
- NEA2 Endophyte:
 Ryegrass with NEA2 endophyte protects against insect pests including Black Beetle, while the risk of ryegrass staggers is minimal.
Tall Fescue Endophyte Options:
- Max P Endophyte:
Max P is a novel endophyte for the use in modern tall fescue cultivars. Max P greatly increases tall fescues persistence and production by protecting it from insects. In Canterbury trials yield increases of 25 -39 % have been recorded when comparing Max P with non-endophyte tall fescues. For more information on Max P Tall Fescues please contact Specialty Seeds.
Downloads: If you require more information on Endophytes please click here to download an Endophyte Options PDF...
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