Indication
Recommended for high fertility soils. Due to its good tolerance to soil aluminum, it has a strong root system development, providing the cultivar with excellent regrowth and good adaptation to drought. Recommended for cattle in breeding, rearing, fattening, milk production, and also for horses, goats, and sheep.
Megathyrsus maximus cv. Atlas
Panicum maximum cv. Atlas
High fertility
Direct grazing and silage
20 to 22 tons per hectare per year of dry matter (DM)
10 to 12%
From 1.50m to 2.00m
65 to 70%
Very good
Good
Good
Perennial
Agronomic Characteristics
It is a forage species that demands soil fertility, with its main characteristic being its tolerance to aluminum acidity present in the soil.
Use and Management
The Atlas variety is recommended for soils with good fertility, corrected and fertilized. It stands out for its good tolerance to soils with high aluminum content, a component of the soil that confers acidity and inhibits the root development of forage plants. Despite the aluminum, it develops a deep and abundant root system, a characteristic that gives the plant excellent regrowth and good adaptation to drought. It has good nutritional quality and can be used for all categories of beef and dairy cattle, horses, goats, and sheep. In a rotational grazing system, a resting interval of 25-28 days is recommended. It should be avoided that the plant exceeds a height of 1.50m, as in a fenced pasture for too long, especially during the rainy season, the forage becomes mature, lignified, losing nutritional quality and acceptance by the animals. The tussock of the Atlas increases in diameter after cuts or grazing, as it increases the number of tillers, and this is more easily observed in this cultivar.
Origin
The hybrid forage cultivar Atlas originated from artificial crossing, carried out in 1993, in a greenhouse by Matsuda, crossing a sexual female of Tobiatã with K-68, an accession originating from the Ivory Coast/Africa, which never became a commercial cultivar. In 1994, superior genotypes were selected in segregating progenies for apomoxis and sexuality, and the following year, progeny tests were conducted to separate apomictic F1 hybrids from sexual F1 hybrids. In the years 1998 and 1999, the resistance of this hybrid to aluminum (present in acidic soils) was evaluated, both under laboratory conditions (in nutrient solutions) and in the field (in soils proven to be acidic with aluminum presence). In the following two years, the cultivar was evaluated in tests with animals, verifying carrying capacity, trampling resistance, regrowth potential, persistence, drought tolerance, seed production potential, etc.
Morphological Characteristics
It is a perennial bunchgrass plant, with a height between 1.5 to 2.0 m, high basal tillering, medium stem diameter, short internode length, stem with little waxy coating, leaf with little hairiness in the sheath, medium blade length, and light green color. The flowering cycle is medium, with a defined period for flowering (determinate flowering).
