What is Green Mamba™ Grass?

Green Mamba™ is our premier grass that it being bred to a F1 Hybrid with a 40% (to 80%) more F1 Heterosis/Hybrid Vigour/Plant Fitness potential than commercial alternatives, with 3 to 6 multi-generational lifecycles taking place at the customer (Foundational Seed lifecycles of 6-10 years, Breeder Seed lifecycles of 6-10 years and Commercial Seed lifecycles of 6-10 years), which plays out as a rule of thumb over 30-60 years. In ideal conditions it remains forever in its ecological niche, in suboptimal conditions prone to massive droughts, less so. This has been achieved by means of both inter and intraspecific crosses in the wider Phalaris genus, maximising commercial performance for African summer rainfall conditions and increasing speed of regrowth by using the long lifecycles of hybrid Phalaris SP. It is a long term perennial feedlot grass for wetland or winter irrigated conditions, that retains the high speed heterosis for a long time, with 8-10 full grazings per year, or many more shorter duration grazings more frequently. You only establish our Breeder Seed once and it thickens the F1 stand annually, with numerous life cycles of the F1 Seed lines, over 3-6 long term breeding lifecycles. The high heterosis and short between grazing intervals once established is what is novel and new-and which allows optimised establishment of a local eco-type in its ecological niche.

Local Eco type Community Hybrid Breeding:

Our Breeding philosophy is as follows:

➢ Provide a wide genetic base.
➢ Cover all aspects such as low/medium/high soil PH etc in the genetics from the wider Phalaris genus.
➢ Provide a genetic swarm.
➢ Let nature do natural selection at the client in the unique ecological niche, unique climatic conditions and unique on farm local realities where the seed is planted.
➢ What works dominates, what doesn’t work drops out from the genepool.
➢ What works best establishes best and survives long term, forming a local eco-type unique to that farm and its unique local climate and conditions.
➢ Our perspective and planning is ultra long term, multi-generational.

For other examples of similar local eco-type breeding solutions that we have done you may want to look at:

➢ www.bushlucerne.co.za

Here is how the Russian Grass works in different settings, explained in detailed pictures:

Case Study 1: Vanderbijl Park Gauteng Vaal River Sheep feedlot:

These Russian Grass rows is planted with Breeder Seed. It grows to maturity, cross-pollinate, sets F1 seed with 40-80% higher than normal hybrid vigour/plant fitness year round, which seed drops and fill out the interrow area to form continuous pasture of feedlot quality of 25-35% protein. The faster it grows and regrows, the more money the feedlot makes. The higher the protein level, the more money the feedlot makes. The denser the plant population due to seed drop, the more money the feedlot makes. The more manure or nutrients, and water it is able to convert into powerfeed, the more money the feedlot makes. Here it grows on shallow 40 cm soils over a clay layer.

Mature seed heads with natural seed drop after 4 months already. The F1 seeds dropping/being harvested have 40-80% more hybrid vigour/heterosis/plant fitness than the mother plants. The seed germinate and increase the plant population density, raising protein levels by 10% permanently, to the 25% to the 35% protein range. This plant protein is translated into red meat protein and profit by the feedlot.

Otter Boerdery and sheep feedlot boosted their grass with 3 tons of chicken manure per 0.5 ha and achieved this growth in 6 months, with F1 seed drop thickening the stand naturally from month 4 onwards. Seed was also hand harvested for expansion. The F1 plants grow 40-80% faster and have a deeper taproot, more upright form factor and 30% protein. It replaces lucerne in their ration, handles frost next to the Vaal river all winter, and grows all year doing especially well in winter.

F1 seed plants with 40-80% more heterosis/plant fitness/growth rate at the same age, location and time of growth, planted the same manner. It is visibly bigger and more vigorous. Such F1 plants fill in the open spaces in the pasture and grow and recover 40-80% faster, yielding 8-10 grazings per year, depending on management and soil fertility. When we boost soil nutrients and mimick footslope conditions we get big results.

The rows on the left are mainly F1 seeds planted in, while the rows on the right are mainly Breeder Seed. The faster growing yellow colour is visible. When such a stand is fortified with 3 ton of chicken manure per 0.5 ha it results in a carrying capacity of about 45 ewes per ha per year. The rows on the left does much better commercially than the motherlines. Our general approach is to plant breeder lines at a low density, get to F1 seed drop and fill in all available spaces permanently with the F1 seeds for 3-6 long term deep rooted biofilter generations. The high soil fertility mimicks leached nutrients in clay normally found in toeslope vlei conditions. The idea is to have 1 ha perform as if it is 5 ha, on a smallholding.

Feedlot cutting Russian Grass after seed harvesting. Otter Boerdery has an intensive model, with limited land in Vanderbijl Park. They use every cm of land for maximum production and increase productivity with heavy manuring. It enables Otter Boerdery to achieve in 6 months what takes most extensive farmers 12 months, and to produce on 2-3 ha what most extensive farmers do on 4-6 ha. The genetic ability of our Russian Grass allows such a vertical expansion model on a small area of land.

To Recap how Russian Grass Works:

➢ Breeder Seed is supplied to customers, with the F1 heterosis benefit of 40%-80% enhanced plant fitness taking place at the customer annually, by means of yearly seed drop, with quality seed drop for the next few decades/lifetime of the customer. Over time, genetic convergence takes place, with a local adapted ecotype, which relies more on selection and less on heterosis.
➢ Such a F1 hybrid seed germinating yields a 10 year per lifecycle, plant-fitness benefit to the customer,
➢ with nearly double the speed of growth,
➢ much quicker regrowth after grazing,
➢ and more grazing cycles/cuttings per year,
➢ shorter between grazing intervals,
➢ deeper roots able to self-irrigate from deep subsoil moisture reserves,
➢ more above and below ground volume and biomass
➢ and a much faster general metabolism able to extract much more concentrated nutrients from nitrogen rich water run-off.
➢ If a Russian Grass customer plants 5 kg of Breeder Seed per ha at a cost of R10 000, about 100-300 kg of F1 seeds are formed, which drop on the soil and increase plant population densities of the sward to higher than 600 000-700 000 over time, in the permanent stand, filling all open spaces.
➢ This result in a dense stand of young sprigly F1 plants which remain in a young physiological stage due to lack of space due to the high population density. They are grazed often and only have space to regrow straight up with minimal space for old growth to form, keeping protein levels elevated by virtue of keeping plant growth physiologically young. Breeder seed genetics thus manipulate protein levels.
➢ Such a stand then has 25 – 31.8% to 35% protein, the highest grass protein level in Africa, which is typically 10%-15% more protein than older bigger clumps of old growth grass achieved from cuttings or after hand seed production as in the pictures above and in the lab analysis below.
➢ This outcome is what our Russian Grass plant breeding selection process was for and what we selected for. It is the genetic structure and establishment mechanism that we use to establish on difficult varying quality and types of soil on footslope and toeslope lands, extensively, over time, in summer rainfall areas, for winter grazing, with high protein in a protein starved environment.
➢ The approach is not one of classic line breeding where a narrowing of the genetic base result in higher genetic performance levels in specific soil types.
➢ Our approach is rather to use selection to broaden the genetic base with the view that natural selection will take place in varying soil of different qualities on the unique backslope, footslope, toeslope and floodplain lands.
➢ We like to use a pocket of excellence approach where different genepools flourish and mutually support each other based on locally exploited ecological results.
➢ Our view is that the best adapted Breeder Seed plants select themselves based on ecological opportunities below them, and they provide large quantities of F1 seeds which fill in all available open spaces and lead to a much higher general plant population quality from year 2 onwards.