Resolute

• Excellent winter growth
• Extremely palatable
• Good persistence

Highly palatable, autumn/winter productive perennial grass with good persistence for winter rainfall regions. RESOLUTE is a new winter active tall fescue that provides improved palatability over traditional phalaris based pastures, and better persistence over perennial ryegrass pastures. It offers a superior perennial grass option for dryland livestock producers in winter rainfall regions. RESOLUTE is summer dormant which means it is persistent throughout the harsh summer periods. In long term trials it is showing persistence similar to phalaris, but with significantly higher autumn and winter liveweight gain potential compared to other perennial grasses. RESOLUTE is a replacement for traditional phalaris or perennial ryegrass based pastures, to improve palatability. It has the best seedling vigour of any tall fescue and is highly preferred by livestock.

What the producers say...

David Grant, Harrow VIC
It struck well, although we were a bit late spraying for toad-rush weed and had some problems with establishment,” David says. “I thought I might have to sow it again, but I was advised to hold off and it worked out okay despite the toad-rush - it did better than I thought it would.” The Grants grazed the paddock “quite hard” from June, giving it only one spell before spring. “Resolute held up very well under continuous grazing pressure during the winter and also provided a cut of hay - it took off, it surprised me,” he says. Bred for extreme palatability and summer dormancy, David found their sheep preferred Resolute over other pastures in the paddock. “They always chose the Resolute,” he says. “They gave it a real caning before they would go for the other stuff, and they were right back on it as soon as it came up again.”
Tom and Julie Edgell, Bothwell TAS
Four years ago, Tom and Julie Edgell made the switch from ryegrasses to the Wrightson tall fescues Resolute and Quantum as part of a pasture renovation program on their sheep and cattle property ‘Dennistoun’. “These fescues have much better persistence than ryegrass and they are better able to tolerate acidity, waterlogging, drought and insect pests,” said Tom, who is the fourth generation of his family to run the property. “We have seen a general productivity increase since swapping over to fescues. The other thing is they don’t give me hay fever!” “The ryegrass tend to shut down and dry out if we have a long summer,” Tom said. “The old ryegrass varieties we had were just not persistent
enough. The fescues are much more tolerant of setbacks, and they grow in those areas where previously we had no productivity.” Tom said fescues were also more resistant to the ravages of cockchafer and the Tasmanian native corby grub, which had previously wiped out some of his ryegrass pastures. He mixes the two fescues at 7kg/ha each with 3kg/ha of sub-clover and 1kg/ha of white clover. “Pasture renovation is expensive,” Tom said. “Our previous pasture
varieties were not persisting. Using fescues should mean that permanent pastures are exactly that - permanent.”

MANAGEMENT TIPS

• Resolute has excellent seedling vigour which enables it to establish very quickly.
• Established Resolute can tolerate set stocking for moderate periods but it is best suited to rotational grazing systems.
• Resolute should never be allowed to become rank as palatability will decline.