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.
Find a dealerFeatures
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”.
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.
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 State University
Cover Crop & Hay Trial Variety Trial Results
South Charleston, OH, 2017 – 2018
| Entry | Winterkill Rating¹ | Yield (Total DM/A) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cover Crop Treatment | Hay Treatment | Both Treatments | Cover Crop Treatment | Hay Treatment | Both Treatments | |
| % Kill | % Kill | Average | Average | |||
| LowBoy | 5* | 5* | 5 | 0.68 | 3.37 | 2.03 |
| Koga | 10* | 12.3 | 11.2 | 1.79* | 5.86* | 3.8 |
| Winterhawk | 13* | 15.4 | 14.2 | 2.17* | 4.3 | 3.24 |
| Kodiak | 13* | 18.3 | 15.7 | 2.16* | 4.12 | 3.14 |
| FrostProof | 9* | 23.5 | 16.3 | 2.40* | 3.63 | 3.02 |
| McKinley | 16* | 20.3 | 18.2 | 1.65* | 3.78 | 2.72 |
| New Dawn | 18 | 19.7 | 18.9 | 1.74* | 3.89 | 2.82 |
| Sheriff | 28 | 44.5 | 36.3 | 1.45 | 3.13 | 2.29 |
| LSD P=.05 | 11.73 | 2.45 | 0.52 | 0.5 | ||
| 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 | |||
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. | ||
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.
Illinois
In Southern Illinois, researcher John Pike observed LowBoy fields aided planting during late, wet springs.
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
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 |
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, 2020After 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 2019Gallery
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