Turf grasses and Solutions
The global market and RAGT
Turf grasses are grown in many areas around the world for many different uses, including gardening, landscaping and sports grounds.
RAGT has been active in turf breeding since the 1980s and offers a range of turf species including perennial ryegrass, red fescues (strong creeping, slender creeping and chewing) and tall fescue. RAGT creates varieties which are well adapted and developed across Europe. In France we are active through our subsidiary Les Gazons de France who sell high quality turf seed mixtures and products required by professional turf users (including plant nutrition, and gardening and landscaping furniture.).
Two brands RAGT and Les Gazons de France
5 species
Varieties available on the main national /recommended lists in UE: STRI, France, RSM.
Our Common challenges
Turf grasses need to meet many challenges, the biggest of which is to produce more resilient and environmentally friendly lawns in the face of climate change.
RAGT for farmers: yield, stability, and also
RAGT For Industries : Quality
To take up this challenge, the RAGT turf breeding program is split across two different locations, one of which is in Druelle in the south of France where conditions can be quite extreme: cold winters alongside dry and hot summers. We strongly believe that this helps to ensure all our turf grass varieties will be more resilient and able to face difficult conditions.
RAGT also puts a lot of effort and belief into tall fescue as a solution for the future. Tall fescue is a very persistent grass, able to grow in any situation, from flooded to very dry areas. Thanks to decades of breeding, RAGT has managed to create fine leaved tall fescues which combine high quality with persistency, enabling them to be used in a wider range of situations.
RAGT also increases the diversity of species included in mixtures, using flowers or tropical grasses to adapt to new growing zones.
Our Turf grasses solutions
Did you know ?
Perennial ryegrass and tall fescue are used for both turf and forage use. However, thanks to decades of breeding, turf varieties have nothing to do with the forage ones. Turf varieties have actually been bred to grow slowly to avoid mowing too often, while forage ones have been bred to produce more dry matter with high nutritional value and palatability.
Reasons to grow Turf grasses
- Turf grasses can have many different uses including: lawns for private gardens, public areas, sports areas (such as golf courses, cricket pitches and football stadiums), landscaping natural areas and motorway verges. Each turf species has different advantages and they are mostly grown in a mix so that each component provides different benefits, for example:
- Perennial ryegrass: quick establishment and good tolerance to wear.
- Red fescue: very fine for an aesthetically pleasing sward.
- Tall fescue: drought tolerance.
