• Results to date give us confidence that Shogun and Viscount with NEA endophyte is unlikely to cause Its performance is very similar to NEA2 in the tetraploid perennial ryegrass Bealey.
• As a matter of caution, we do not recommend Shogun or Viscount with NEA be used for horses or deer. 

 

Lincoln University trial results

A staggers trial was conducted at Lincoln University in which NEA was compared to a Standard endophyte (SE) control cultivar. A SE cultivar is used to show when ryegrass staggers occurs. This trial was run under 'poor' management, designed to cause high levels of ryegrass staggers, to simulate a worst case senario. Plots were pure ryegrass (no clover), and grown up to a high herbage mass, before being set-stocked for an eight week period over late summer.

During February and March 2011, the replicated NEA and SE plots were grazed with hoggets stocked at 12 and 10 hoggets/ha respectively, and a high level of ryegrass staggers was seen in the sheep grazing the SE ryegrass. No staggers were seen on animals grazing NEA, and as a result we are confident that we are very unlikely to see any staggers on NEA on farms. At the same time, 75% of hoggets grazing SE showed staggers, with 55% of them showing severe staggers (a score of 4).

 

Results