Ryegrass is an excellent grass meadow plant, easy and quick to plant, and highly productive.

Ryegrass prefers a temperate climate to high temperatures and long periods of drought, and can withstand cold winters very well.

An important distinction is the chromosome make up, which can be:

• Diploid (2n); plat with thinner stems and leaves, less evident nodes and particularly suitable for haymaking and ensilage.
• Tetraploid (3n); particularly vigorous plant with thicker stems, larger and longer leaves, richer in water content, and more suitable for green foraging and ensilage after drying on the field.

Sowing must be mechanical or scattered, followed by rolling of the soil. Sowing depth must be 1.5-2 cm, and the recommended sowing ratios for monophyte grass meadows are 25-35 kg/ha for diploid varieties and 30-35 kg/ha for tetraploid varieties.

In general, for late sowing, or for scattered sowing, quantities must be increased by 30-50%.
The preparation of the sowing bed may be carried out with both simple working of the soil, or using traditional techniques (ploughing, weeding, etc.). Although it can adapt well to a wide range of soils, Italian ryegrass prefers medium texture soils, fresh and deep, and it does not like strong clay soils or dry sandy soils. The most popular sowing period is autumn, although in well watered areas it may be brought forward to the end of august-beginning of September, if a crop in late autumn is desired.
Standard autumn sowing will give 1 or 2 spring crops.

Fertilisation, especially with nitrogen, is recommended particularly during the first period, using 50-100 kg/ha of nitrogen, and, if appropriate, phosphorous and potassium. Ryegrass is a typical mowing species, and is suitable for several uses, like:

• Green forage for direct consumption
• Ensilage forage
• Haying forage