Fill me in on Italian Rye Grass

_Wish_ I had some experience with it! :) Not the grass' fault it couldn't grow.

--->Paul

There are a multitude of other varities that grow more upright that you could harvest for hay/silage, but I have no real experience with them. I think David mostly filled in that bit anyway.
I will say that this is likely our last year with the annual ryegrass too. It's gotten to be too much work for us to plant every year, we had a poor germination this year, and we've had two years now out of ten where it bolted and set seed under some stress... so it's gotten to be a somewhat costly and unpredictable crop. I think we'll go with a preannual ryegrass and Huia white clover next spring, perhaps with a bit of annual mixed in for the first year. I don't see that we've got much to lose that way even if it does winter kill...

Rod

A higher sed rate will also produce more plants, I know from experience that 35 pounds weight per acre is a good mixture (inc 3 pounds White Clover) and will produce a good crop. Check out with your local seeds merchant the best varieties for your area based on his seed/yield book which in England is published by the Plant Breeding stations who have to give accurate information. Do you have in your area an unbiased crops advisory body.
Over here the main use of IRG is as a 1 year crop or when used in a general mixture of Ryegrass' & clover which would be left down for several years, the IRG produces yields in the 1st year. Then the longer lasting Perenial Ryegrass's will kick in to provide the bulk of the crop.
Hope this gives you some more information. Look up IRG and grass seeds on Google, maybe there is more information about the crop in your part of the World available in the internet.
David