During an eight-week period, perennial ryegrass was harvested at early and late maturity stage, corresponding to three and five weeks of regrowth. Each week, growth rate and stem proportion were determined, and chemical composition was analysed. During the experimental period, longer regrowth period resulted in increased growth rate and a lower nutritive quality of the grass. Irrespective of regrowth period, there was a large variation in growth rate and chemical composition, and thereby also in nutritive quality throughout the experiment. When optimising cutting strategy, these relations should be assessed in conjunction with the effects on feed intake and milk performance when grass is fed to dairy cows.