Offered Papers Theme A: Efficient Production from Grassland

Description

Ryegrass is widely adapted to cool temperate eco-zones and breeders often submit individual varieties for testing in a number of EU countries. National testing programmes often combine data from several trial sites that may differ climatically, but not from sites in other member states, despite the possibility of high ecological similarity. Given increasing interest in animal value characters (soluble sugars, lipids, sward geometry), additional testing for these would be valuable but is prohibited by capped or declining funding. Data sharing between EU national authorities could be advantageous but is inhibited by the lack of statistically valid data on the sensitivity of each performance parameter to agro-climatic conditions across the EU. This paper, reports the preliminary stages of the EuroVCU (herbage) desktop study of ryegrass variety performances across an extensive range of EU national test centres. Analysis of the resulting data sets quantifies the genotype by environment responses of current varieties and could provide a validated protocol for future data sharing.

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A Survey of European Regional Adaptation in Italian Ryegrass Varieties

Ryegrass is widely adapted to cool temperate eco-zones and breeders often submit individual varieties for testing in a number of EU countries. National testing programmes often combine data from several trial sites that may differ climatically, but not from sites in other member states, despite the possibility of high ecological similarity. Given increasing interest in animal value characters (soluble sugars, lipids, sward geometry), additional testing for these would be valuable but is prohibited by capped or declining funding. Data sharing between EU national authorities could be advantageous but is inhibited by the lack of statistically valid data on the sensitivity of each performance parameter to agro-climatic conditions across the EU. This paper, reports the preliminary stages of the EuroVCU (herbage) desktop study of ryegrass variety performances across an extensive range of EU national test centres. Analysis of the resulting data sets quantifies the genotype by environment responses of current varieties and could provide a validated protocol for future data sharing.