LowBoy

Annual Ryegrass

An innovative new tool for cover crop systems.

LowBoy is as easy to terminate as it is to plant, giving it an edge over traditional annual ryegrasses used for cover cropping. Its unique growing habit reduces weeds, yet allow for other cover crop species. LowBoy is deep-rooted and cold-tolerant too, making it an ideal cover crop tool.

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Features

Great Ground Coverage

Compared to other annual ryegrasses, LowBoy has much more aggressive tillering. This spreading effect minimizes bare soil, runoff, evaporation, and unwanted weeds during the growing season.

Easy To Terminate

LowBoy's narrower leaves and reduced top growth make it easier for late-season termination, especially during wetter springs.

Deep and Wide Roots

LowBoy's roots go deep. They also go wide helping retain soil, absorb water and create an abundance of root channels.

Cold Tolerant

LowBoy has shown good cold tolerance in Midwest trials.

Planting Green & No-Till

Thanks to its shorter canopy and minimal residue, LowBoy is ideal for planting green and no-till crop establishment.

Endophyte-Free

While used primarily as a cover crop, LowBoy is also safe for all livestock and free of toxic endophyte.

Strengths

Stays Low to the Ground

LowBoy covers more ground. Compared to other annual ryegrasses, LowBoy has much more aggressive tillering. This spreading effect minimizes bare soil, runoff, evaporation, and unwanted weeds during the growing season. LowBoy is truly excellent temporary ground cover.

Easy Termination

When late spring arrives, LowBoy goes away with ease, making transition to row crops or warm season crops easy. Compared to traditional ryegrasses, LowBoy has significantly less top-growth.¹ Excessive top-growth can be difficult to burn down chemically as well as hinder no-till seeding and sufficient light penetration to dry out and warm up soil. LowBoy is there when you need it, and leaves when you don’t, allowing easier establishment of primary crops, such as corn and soybeans.

¹At University of Kentucky, Lexington, LowBoy was measured at 11” on April 18th, 2016, as compared to Marshall ryegrasses at 18”.

Corn planted into LowBoy annual ryegrass.

Plays Well With Others

LowBoy is an excellent grass to use in multi-species cover crop mixtures. It germinates quickly, fills in at the crown, but doesn’t overwhelm other components with excessive height and lodging. Use it with small grains, brassicas, and legumes.

An example of this is shown in this video out of eastern Pennsylvania where Lowboy was planted with Dixie crimson clover.

Deep and Dense Root System

In multiple evaluations, LowBoy has demonstrated an extensive root system with two predictable characteristics. First, LowBoy’s has very dense roots directly under each plant. These roots are wide and thick, penetrating soil with countless channels. Second, LowBoy sends roots deep. In soil pit/plug studies LowBoy demonstrated root depths as deep, if not deeper than other well-known cover-crop ryegrasses.

Root probe showing the length of LowBoy's roots.

Close up of root ball of a Lowboy plant.

Cold Tolerance

LowBoy has shown very good cold tolerance throughout the country. Numerous independent evaluators and producers report minimal to no loss due to winter injury when planted in the fall.

Ohio

Ohio State University

Cover Crop & Hay Trial Variety Trial Results

South Charleston, OH

2017-2018

Entry	Winterkill Rating¹			Yield (Total DM/A)
	Cover Crop Treatment (% Kill)	Hay Treatment (% Kill)	Both Treatments (Avg.)	Cover Crop Treatment	Hay Treatment	Both Treatments (Avg.)
LowBoy	5.00*	5.00*	5.00	0.68	3.37	2.03
Koga	10.00*	12.30	11.20	1.79*	5.86*	3.80
Winterhawk	13.00*	15.40	14.20	2.17*	4.30	3.24
Kodiak	13.00*	18.30	15.70	2.16*	4.12	3.14
FrostProof	9.00*	23.50	16.30	2.40*	3.63	3.02
McKinley	16.00*	20.30	18.20	1.65*	3.78	2.72
New Dawn	18.00	19.70	18.90	1.74*	3.89	2.82
Sheriff	28.00	44.50	36.30	1.45	3.13	2.29
LSD P=.05	11.73	2.45		0.52	0.50
¹Winterkill rating taken 3/26.
*Statistically equal to the top performing variety.

Ohio State University

Cover Crop Variety Trial

South Charleston, OH

2014-2015 (Sown 9/8/2014)

Entry	Winter Injury*	% Stand	Yield (Total DM/A)**
LowBoy	1.0	100	559
KB Supreme	1.5	100	2510
Centurion	1.5	100	2196
Fria	1.5	100	2149
Nu Spirit	1.8	100	2459
KB Royal	2.3	98	1960
LSD (0.05)	1.0	11	777
*Winter Injury -- 1 = no injury to 5= severe injury (dead)
**lbs. Dry Matter/Acre

Kentucky

University of Kentucky

2015 – 2016 Annual Ryegrass Trial

Lexington, KY

Sown Sept. 3, 2015

Variety	Winter injury*
	Jan 29th
TetraPrime	0.9
Marshall	1.1
LowBoy	1.8
Melqautro	2.3
Barmultra II	2.3
Fria	5.3
Nelson	5.5
Bruiser	4.0
Oryx	4.3
Jackson	4.3
Kospeed	4.5
Feast II	9.0
Gulf	9.0
* Winter injury score based on a scale of 1-9 with 9 being the greatest amount of injury.

New York

Cornell University

Cover Crop Trial (% Ground Coverage)

2015-2016

Variety	April 19, 2016
LowBoy	94%
Meroa Italian	93%
Barextra	86%
Fria	75%
Bardelta	75%
Ribeye	55%
Maximus	44%
Hercules	24%
Lsd	16%

Wide Adaptation

LowBoy is helping farmers from Canada to Alabama, from the East Coast to the Midwest.

Alabama

In Leighton & Moulton, AL, cotton growers are finding that LowBoy is a great rotation with their corn and cotton, terminating with ease, suppressing weeds and mellowing the soil. Growers have commented that they can immediately tell a difference in the field during seeding of their cotton crop. Even the fertilizer man notices the soil being much more stable to drive on! The improved soil speaks on its own.

LowBoy planted after corn - Moulton, AL, 3/12/2020

LowBoy after burndown - Leighton, AL,4/9/2019

Cotton planted into LowBoy - Leighton, AL, 6/24/2019

Illinois

In Southern Illinois, researcher John Pike observed LowBoy fields aided planting during late, wet springs.

Read the full study

LowBoy at maturity - Marion, IL, May 2017

No-till planting into LowBoy - Marion, IL, May 2017

Corn emergence in LowBoy - Marion, IL, May 31, 2017

Pennsylvania

In Eastern Pennsylvania, growers using LowBoy with crimson clover notice healthier corn stands and much improved soil.

LowBoy planted in a mix with crimson clover - Eastern PA, 4/2/2020

No-till planting into LowBoy and crimson clover mix - Eastern PA, May 2020

Corn growing in a mix of LowBoy and crimson clover - Eastern PA, 6/11/2020

LowBoy Gallery

LowBoy in South Charleston, OH trial plot.

LowBoy in Penn State University trial plot.

Lowboy annual ryegrass used as a cover crop following corn.

Lowboy annual ryegrass used as a cover crop following cotton.

Lowboy annual ryegrass used as a cover crop after burndown.

Lowboy annual ryegrass used as cover crop before cotton.

Lowboy annual ryegrass planted with AU Merit vetch as a cover crop following cotton.

Testimonials

I planted 1500 acres of the Lowboy for cover crop last year. I really liked it compared to the Marshall I used to finish up a farm after I ran out of Lowboy. When we planted the annual ryegrass last fall everything greened up and looked good through the winter but when spring rolled around I noticed driving by that it looked like the 60 acres of Marshall that we finished up with was a lot greener but upon closer examination it was just getting the top growth quicker. We dug a few plants of the Marshall vs Lowboy and decided they looked equal underground. As a couple more months went by the Lowboy probably got 36” tall or so and was standing great. The Marshall has gotten 48”-60” tall and was laying over creating a huge mat on the ground. Once we started planting these fields the Lowboy planted great because it was standing but the Marshall not so much. We had to make several adjustments to the planter to try to get it to cut through the (Marshall) mat and raise the population on the beans another 20,000 seeds per acre just because we weren’t getting them all in the ground like we had liked. After all that it was an easy decision that I didn’t want to mess with any other annual ryegrass that wasn’t shorter statured like the Lowboy.

Ryan Hager Kentucky – 2020

After looking at Lowboy for 2 years in 2016 and 2017, I would describe it as a low growing annual ryegrass that has aggressive tillering. It is not a product I would recommend as a forage but is great for use in cover crop situations. With our Carter Harvester, which is a flail mower, after harvesting across the plots, the other traditional annual ryegrasses you can see the individual rows (7” spacing) after harvesting. With the Lowboy, the rows were almost completely filled in.

Tracy Neff, Agronomist, King's AgriSeeds Lancaster, PA – June 2019

Planting

LowBoy can be seeded at a rate of 10–30 lbs/acre depending on the mix or purpose. For best results, plant August thru December or March thru May. Ideal seeding depth: 0–½".

Seeding Rate	10–30 lbs/ac
Planting Dates	Aug–Dec, Mar–May
Planting Zones (map)	green
Planting Depth	0–½"
Optimal pH Range	5.5–7.0

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