J.B. HACKER, R.J. WILLIAMS and J.N. COOTE

Division of Tropical Crops and Pastures, CSIRO, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Abstract

Uninterrupted growth was measured during winter-spring (July 13–October 23) of 25 buffel grasses, and Digitaria eriantha cv. Premier in a fully irrigated experiment at Lawes, south-east Queensland. The buffel grasses included the cultivars Biloela, Molopo, Gayndah and American.
Several accessions had 2–4 times the growth in late winter (August) of Biloela, but as the season progressed their relative superiority declined. Molopo, and an introduction which was closely similar to and believed to be a reintroduction of Molopo, progressively improved their relative performance as the season advanced.
Premier yielded comparatively well in late winter but less well thereafter. On average, the only buffel grass cultivar which ranked more highly than Premier was Molopo. Based on this and subsequent trials, two of the accessions have now been registered as cultivars Bella (48280) and Viva (33100).