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Development of a comprehensive forage evaluation system for NZ dairy farmersThe aim of this project is to develop and implement a comprehensive system for evaluating and communicating the economic value of pasture plant cultivars to dairy farm businesses. As a result of this development, famers will be able to establish clear expectations of how those cultivars should perform, and have confidence that those expectations will be met. The evaluation system will also send clear signals to plant breeders regarding the traits of importance to dairy farmers, and provide a framework for annually evaluating the extent to which genetic gains in pasture plant material are contributing to trends in industry productivity. The project will be conducted in collaboration with the pasture plant breeding industry in New Zealand. |
Expected outcomes of this project
| Benefit |
| The economic benefits of renewing pastures to incorporate new cultivars will be clearer, giving farmers a sound basis on which to make decisions to invest in pasture renewal |
| Farmers will be better able to select the most appropriate cultivars of pasture species for their farm system, based on independent information from a range of sources (trials, on-farm paddock data) |
| Farmers will have clear expectations of how pasture cultivars should perform in their farm system when managed according to best practice |
| Better matching of plant breeding objectives to key traits of economic performance to farm systems, resulting in increased productivity and industry competitiveness |
| Increased annual genetic gain in pasture economic merit. |
