Forage Cereals

A joint venture between Plant & Food Research and PGG Wrightson Seeds (Forage Innovations Limited) operates a forage cereal breeding programme, with proprietary seed company Agricom the commercialising partner. The programme is developing high-quality cereal forages with superior disease resistance, that are suitable for a range of New Zealand farming systems. At the heart of this partnership is a feedback loop between scientists and growers, to ensure new cultivars are fully optimised. 

Forage cereals have a range of on farm applications, from green chop (flowering stage prior to seeding) for pit silage or baleage, to animal grazing, or whole chop (at a stage with developing seeds but not yet fully dried out) for cereal sileage. 

The Plant & Food Research-Agricom partnership has focused on oats, barley, and triticale for their high dry matter and available energy content. Three cultivars each of oat and barley have been released in New Zealand, along with six triticale cultivars.

Plant & Food Research scientists are responsible for the pedigree breeding of new cultivars, from which Agricom select the most promising, which are then progressed to on farm trialling. The end goal is robust cultivars that work for farmers and for Agricom – in producing, harvesting and marketing seeds. 

Dr Paul Johnston works on forage oat breeding at Plant & Food Research in Lincoln. Using traditional (and affordable) selective breeding techniques, the scientists begin with a male-female cross from plants with attractive traits. Over five to seven years the F1 cross is developed to create a stable end cultivar with the desired traits. These include yield, disease resistance and growth rates. Paul points out that plant pathogens (such as rust) evolve, therefore cultivars need to as well. 

Another key trait for Agricom and growers is stem strength. Plants need to grow to a mid-range height with strong enough stems, so the plants don’t collapse in windy or very wet conditions (known as ‘lodging’). This is a basic parameter for baling the crop or harvesting for seeds. 

Each crop is assessed for different traits using phenotype – the actual physical properties that can be selected by eye, and physical testing (rather than selection through genetic testing) and over the years in the programme stable ‘true lines’ are established which have the desired fixed traits.

In recent years the partnership has turned to the opportunities presented by forage cereal ‘catch crops’. Dr Brendon Malcolm at Plant & Food Research specialises in this area. Catch crops are planted after a forage crop has been grazed in winter. They take up excess nitrogen as they grow, thereby reducing the quantity of nitrates leaching into waterways. The crop is then utilised as feed, ploughed back into the soil, or cut for baling or sileage. 

Brendon says, “Catch crops are showing great results for capturing nitrates. We want to develop new cultivars that improve on current nitrate capture rates while producing more quality feed for use on farms.”  

Chris Keenan manages a dairy operation with its own dairy support block. In winter, cows are fed on fodder beet and silage. Chris says, “we're always trying to improve how we do things to fit in with environment and the farm environment plans.”  

Fodder beet is strip tilled, grazed, backfenced as it is grazed, and then planted with oats, cereal and permanent pasture underneath. “That's worked really well for us with mopping up N from the cows - and giving us a good surplus feed in the spring when we need it.” 

Chris has been working with Brendon in catch crop trial work for a number of years now. He believes it is important for farmers to be talking to scientists about the research work they are choosing to do. He adds, “from a farmer's perspective, seeing how well the cereals do without fertiliser is just proof for me as the farmer that there's so much nutrient there to be gained, and you can't catch that with grass. You need a fast-growing cereal to mop up that N. So, it's a huge benefit I see for farmers.” 

Trialling of new cultivars culminates with on farm trials led by Agricom, with its extensive networks enabling trials at various locations around the country. 

Agricom’s South Island Forage Systems Specialist, Fraser Harrison, works with farmers using forage cereals and is one of the team that oversees trials. The work involves identification of ‘best practice’ farmers and different geographical locations for trialling new cultivars.  

Fraser notes in recent years they’ve seen a pivot towards the use of forage cereals (particularly oats) as catch crops. On the breeding research, he adds, “These are winter crops – so we need fast starters that can grow aggressively in colder temperatures.” 

The joint venture is working on new catch crop cultivars, though it will be a few years before they’re at a stage for trialling. He says, “Our continual feedback loop with scientists, ourselves and farmers gives us the assurance that we’ve got a top product that meets the needs of those on the land.” 

By the time farm trials are begun Agricom has already made the decision to go to market with the new cultivar. On farm trials involve the critical step between using the product and partnering that with the right management systems to achieve the greatest return per hectare. 

Agricom provides a wraparound service where their specialists support farmers with their rotation system decisions and provide them with the information to select the best cultivar for their situation and how to get the best from their forage cereal crops.  

Fraser explains, “For example, some crops have a short window of five to seven days for grazing. You can’t wait for it to fall over or go to seed, because then your animals are unlikely to want to eat it, or they’re not getting the full nutritional value. Part of our work is to make sure farmers have the information they need to get top results from their investment.”