By Deirdre Hennessy

The Grasses for the Future Conference was held in the Silversprings Hotel, Cork on the 14th October and Moorepark Conference Centre on the 15th October 2010. Almost 200 delegates attended Day 1 of the event which took the form of a conference. The audience was drawn from the right across the grassland industry and included breeders, evaluators, farmers, researchers, advisors, members of the seed industry and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and included international delegates from New Zealand, United States of America, UK, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Germany and Holland.



Nine papers were presented on Day 1, which was divided into four sessions with two papers in each of the first three sessions, and three papers in session four. Session 1 dealt with the ‘Ideal Grass’ for grass based livestock production in Ireland, and the gains that have been made in yield and persistency through grass breeding and selection over the last 40 years. Session 2 focussed on ‘Breeding Grasses for the Future’. The priority traits required from grass were outlined and some of the methods available to breed and select for traits were described. After lunch, session 3 described how the best grasses can be identified using variety evaluation and an economic index for grass cultivar selection. The final session of Day 1 focussed on industry uptake of grass breeding progress. The economics of reseeding were discussed, as well as mixture construction, and the marketing of improved grass varieties. Michael Caslor, USDA, gave an excellent overall summary of the key points raised throughout the day.

Moorepark Conference Centre hosted Day 2 of the conference. Trevor Gilliland, AFBI, Northern Ireland, gave a brief summary of Day 1 to refresh everyone of the topics discussed. This was followed by three discussion openers from a farmer – Kevin Twomey (farmer and IGA Council member) who described his requirements from grass, an advisor – John Maher, Teagasc Specialist Advisor, who provided an extension view on the requirements from grass and a researcher – Emer Kennedy, Moorepark, who briefly presented results from a stakeholder survey undertaken before the conference. The delegates were then divided into 11 groups. Each group had a facilitator and discussed 3 topics over the course of about 1.5 hours. The topics were:
• Farm level requirements for the future
• Breeding and evaluation requirements to meet farm level requirements
• Developing better economic indicators, e.g. to promote reseeding, to promote confidence in a variety evaluation index
The discussion groups provided each delegate the opportunity to express his/her views on grass breeding and evaluation, and requirements for the future. The feedback from the groups was then compiled and a roundtable discussion took place. After lunch field trips took place to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Crop Evaluation site at Ballyderown Farm to see grass evaluation trials and to the Moorepark Grassland Research Programme.

There was a large attendance IGA council members and IGA members at the conference. IGA council members were also involved in the conference - Andrew Cromie chaired Session 3 on Day 1; Kevin Twomey described his requirements from grass; Pierce Kelly, Padraig French, Jack Kennedy and John Donworth were group facilitators on Day 2 and Deirdre Hennessy was one of the conference organisers.

The conference was organised by Teagasc, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and AFBI, Northern Ireland and was sponsored by the Irish Grassland Association, Germinal Seeds, Goldcrop, More Grass Ireland and Barenburg.

The proceedings and presentations from the conference can be viewed by clicking here