FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN GRASS BREEDING AT LOUGHGALL
By David Johnston, Forage Grass Breeder, NI Horticulture and Plant Breeding Station, Loughgall
Grass varieties, bred by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in partnership with seed specialist company Barenbrug, form the backbone of many seeds mixtures, taking over 50% of the local market. However, deciding what the industry will want in the future, or what effect the current review of the CAP will have on local farms is difficult. The solution chosen at DARD's grass breeding programme at the Northern Ireland Horticulture and Plant Breeding Station, Loughgall is to work on a range of options to meet possible producer demands. The fact that our grass programme is closely integrated with nine others on a world-wide basis, allows us to introduce novel breeding material which may be of value to the local farming industry in the future. One such example is a new variety, code named PVC 110, which is being entered into Official Trials this year, developed by crossing the well proven DARD variety Moy with New Zealand material which has been specifically selected for intensive grazing by dairy cows.
Another new feature of the DARD programme is the on-farm testing of new varieties before seed is put onto the market. With the changes in the industry at present, grass yield may not be the only point for consideration when sowing out new swards Identifying grasses which will be preferred by the cows and those which provide the best production results should be of greater importance. As well as the testing of DARD's newest grasses at Loughgall, Moira, Dublin, Aberdeen, Evesham and Devon, results from on-farms trials on commercial dairy farms will make an important contribution to deciding which grasses will be developed for the future. We have seen big differences in dairy cow grazing preferences between varieties and preliminary results indicate that one of our newest varieties Portrush, and well proven varieties Glen, Navan and Gilford are particularly well eaten by cows.
It is possible that in future and especially if subsidies to beef production are decoupled, some farms will adopt a low-input strategy. In order to identify suitable grazing and cutting swards for this type of management, ten special mixtures have been formulated and are being tested under low-input or organic managements, both at NIHPBS, Loughgall and on several farms around the Province. These mixtures include the popular late perennials Dromore and Navan in combination with some of Barenbrug's newer varieties of alternative species.
There is also considerable interest in varieties with a peak of growth to suit a single late May silage cut and the new tetraploid perennial ryegrass Dunluce is of particular interest in this regard.
Hybrid ryegrasses are another area of increasing interest and the newest ones, Drumlin and Foyle, which are 75% perennial ryegrass by parentage, are more dense, leafy and persistent than existing hybrids.
Close co-operation between DARD, Barenbrug and New-Zealand AgResearch has resulted in the development of several new white clovers which are very well adapted to conditions on local farms and have been added to the Northern Ireland Recommended List. The first of these, Barblanca is a large leaved type giving excellent season-long production and unparalleled persistency for a large leaved variety, making it ideal for intensive grazing and cutting. An even newer variety, Crusader, is a medium leaved type giving an exceptionally high level of production, especially in early spring and late autumn, when most other clovers are dormant. As well as high productivity, Crusader was the most persistent variety under intensive sheep grazing at Loughgall and an on-farm evaluation has shown that it can survive intensive grazing with dairy cows, even at high levels of applied fertiliser nitrogen and slurry.
New research in the more fundamental aspects of plant genetics being undertaken by DARD's Applied Plant Science Division at Newforge Lane, Belfast are likely to have major implications for the Loughgall grass programme in the future. The development of genetic marker technology may allow the identification of favourable characteristics by an examination of a variety's genetic make-up. In addition, Near Infra Red Spectrometry techniques for the selection of characters associated with herbage quality are being developed. Trying to keep 'ahead of the game' will hopefully ensure a steady and secure supply of locally bred grasses for the future.
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