Indication
Due to its excellent nutritional quality, palatability, and medium size, it has a wide suitability for various categories and species of animals, being recommended for all stages of milk and meat production, as well as for horses, goats, and sheep. It is suitable for soils with high fertility, corrected and fertilized, in an intensive rotational grazing system. It has thin leaves and stems, which allows for the production of excellent quality hay and silage. It has good adaptation to subtropical climates.
Megathyrsus maximus cv. MG18 Áries II
Panicum maximum cv. MG18 Áries II
Certificate No. 20190248 on 05/14/2019
High fertility
Direct grazing, hay and silage
18 to 20 tons per hectare per year of dry matter (DM)
10 to 15%
0.60 to 1.00m
62 to 66%
Excellent
Very good
Very good
Perennial
Agronomic Characteristics
High soil fertility requirements, good tolerance to subtropical climatic conditions. Intense basal tillering, thin leaves and stems, excellent nutritional quality.
Use and Management
The MG18 Áries II cultivar, due to its excellent digestibility (62 to 66% in vitro) and nutritional quality (10 to 15% CP), is recommended for highly selective and demanding animals such as horses, sheep, and goats, as well as for the entire milk and meat production chain. It has a dry matter production capacity of 20 to 30 tons per hectare per year. It is recommended for use in rotational grazing, with animals entering when the plants are around 60 cm tall and being removed when they reach 30 cm above the ground. It is also recommended for silage or haymaking.
Origin
The hybrid cultivar MG18 Áries II was obtained from artificial crossing, conducted in 2012, in a greenhouse by Matsuda, crossing a female accession called SPM-92 with Áries (pollinator). The accessions used in the crosses are from Matsuda's Active Germplasm Bank. In the following years, there were new crosses, backcrosses, and selection of superior genotypes. Segregating progenies for apomoxis and sexuality were selected. The sexual progenies were eliminated, and mass selection occurred in the apomictic progenies. DHE tests (Distinguishability, Homogeneity, and Stability) and VCU (Value, Cultivation, and Use) trials for cutting and grazing occurred in Álvares Machado-SP and Mirante do Paranapanema-SP. Adaptation trials to cold weather were conducted in the Quaraí-RS region.
Morphological Characteristics
It is a tufted grass with a more prostrate growth (compared to Áries) and perennial cycle, with a height between 0.6 to 1.0m (low-growing plant), a large number of basal and axillary tillers, thin stem, short internode length, stem with little waxiness, moderately hairy leaf sheath, short and narrow blade length, with an arched growth and light green color. The flowering period is indefinite, and its cycle is early, causing the plant to flower several times a year. This indeterminate flowering allows the plant to maintain its nutritional qualities even during flowering.
