August 2008
While the harvest and preparations for analyses of all test data from our US trials are going on, it is a great pleasure for DLF to present a new R&D team led by Chief Breeder Steve Reid and Research Agronomist Adam Probst.
Steve Reid is 44 years old and has been employed by the firm since 2002. For the past three years, Steve has successfully been in charge of the establishment of our R&D office in Kentucky. He has created the basis for a valuable testing of both turf and forage grasses in the Eastern part of the US. Because of its location, in an area with hot and humid summers and cold winters, the station in Kentucky is an optimal place to test our grasses and clovers for disease and stress tolerance.
Steve will be moving back to DLF's breeding station near Corvallis in Oregon where he will be responsible of the entire US R&D programme.
Adam Probst has taken over the respon-sibility of the trial station in Kentucky. He is 25 years old and has a Master's degree from the University of Kentucky. After finishing his degree, Adam was employed at the university as a researcher with primary focus on practical field trials. Concurrently with his studies, Adam managed his own farm with plant produc-tion in Kentucky. In spite of his young age, this has given Adam a technical and practical knowledge within planning and execution of practical growth testing.
Steve and Adam, together with the other colleagues in our US R&D organisation, will be a strong team that will continue to supply the US market with high-quality turf and forage varieties.
July 2008
DLF-TRIFOLIUM opens a new research and breeding station at Moerstraten in the South Western corner of the Netherlands.
The new station is headed by Senior Breeder Thieu Pustjens who has been working with grass breeding for many years, first in Advanta Seeds and now in the DLF-TRIFOLIUM Group.
The Moerstraten research and breeding station is a vital element of the DLF-TRIFOLIUM Group’s strategy to consolidate all parts of the Dutch breeding programme at one place. In recent years the company has been using the area around Moerstraten for breeding and multiplication of its varieties, and has very good experiences with the local soil quality and climate. Furthermore, the breeding station is only half an hour’s drive from DLF-TRIFOLIUM’s facilities in Kapelle and Vlijmen.
In addition to being the centre of the entire research and breeding programme in the Netherlands, Moerstraten will host marketing trials demonstrating the strong portfolio of turf and forage grass varieties of the DLF-TRIFOLIUM Group. The station is equipped with meeting facilities to receive customers and other guests.
The facilities include, among other things, a modern green house to support targeted breeding and research programs in controlled environment. The construction of the new facilities is expected to be finished by the end of 2008.
June 2008
In many locations around the world, people experience increasing problems with contamination, whereas plants suffer from salt stress. This situation also applies to grasses. Intensified utilization of the world’s arable land for both crop production and amenity purposes has simultaneously increased the number of saline (salt-affected) soils, where salt stress creates problems. These challenges set out new demands for increased salt tolerance in future grasses.
The RD department at DLF is working to address these challenges, both by using advanced salt tolerance-testing systems in the breeding process and by testing new salt tolerance genes from rice.
Problems with high salinity are most evident in areas with low precipitation, where nutritional salts are deposited in the soil due to high evaporation rates. But salinity problems can also be induced by insufficient irrigation, bad drainage conditions, irrigation with saline or low quality water or by over-fertilisation. For several years many golf and sports fields have been irrigated with recycled water (especially in the USA). This practice however, has led to a slow but significant accumulation of salts in the soil with the consequence that in some areas either the preferred grass species has to be replaced with more salt tolerant species with inferior turf quality or eventually, the area is left without any vegetation.
Solution to salt stress
Coping with salt stress relates both to soil management and to improvement of the plant’s ability to withstand a high salt concentration. In order to ensure this, thousands of plants in hydroponic systems are screened under very high salt pressure (1.5 % salt, which equals half the concentration in normal sea water). Only the very best performing plants are selected to go into the DLF breeding process, where they will be tested successively both in hydroponics and in saline soil. Introduction of new salt tolerant varieties from these screenings lies a few years ahead but saline tolerant plants are already in the pipeline.
Feb 2008
In order to throw light on how forage grasses and legumes influence animal welfare and milk quality, DLF-TRIFOLIUM actively participates in a large-scale research project together with Arla Foods, the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences (Aarhus University) and KULife (Copenhagen University). Among several issues, this research project will explore the possibilities of improving both the taste and the content of a-linolenic acid in milk primarily by choosing certain varieties and harvest time. A high level of a-linolenic acid is commonly associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases.
The route from grass silage to milk goes through rumen fermentation to milk production in the udder and in order to achieve optimal and stable milk quality, it is crucial that the rumen bacteria are in a good condition and work efficiently. Therefore one task in the project will be to examine how the annual variations in silage quality can be minimized. Along the entire route – from forage harvest, incorporation and conversion in the cow stomach, and up to milk production – sampels will be taken and subjected to a thorough chemical and biochemical analysis. All forage samples will be analyzed for content and composition of sugars, fatty acids and minerals. The aim is to identify the substances and parameters, that are most critical for an optimal rumen function, increased a-linolenic acid fraction, and the final milk quality. Milk quality and taste composition is judged by a sensory panel. In this way it will be possible to link the taste of the milk with its chemical composition, the condition of the rumen bacteria, and the silage properties of the different forage varieties.
May 2007
Acknowledging the demand for low input golf courses, DLF-TRIFOLIUM has tested different species and varieties on greens with N-fertilize levels ranging from 60 to 200 kg N/ha annually. The cutting height in the trials was 5.5-6.0 mm; the greens were verticut 2-3 times a year and top dressed several times.
Reducing the N-level resulted generally in an increased presence of weed and lower scores for quality. The best low-N varieties were the very dense trichophylla types like Cezanne, which remained dense enough to produce an attractive putting surface. When comparing root mass produced by the varieties under the varying N-level, Cezanne proved to be able to produce perfect results at low levels as well as at high levels of N.
Calliope 60 kg N
Cezanne 60 kg N
"Surprisingly enough the trichophylla types (slender creeping) had higher scores than the commuta varieties," concludes breeder Niels Christian Nielsen. "I had expected the commutate types to have the best winter survival, but the trials showed a different result: The trichophylla varieties have early spring growth, are more persistent during dry summer periods and survive the winter better. One reason for this is trichophylla types obtain higher shoot density in the establishment year."
Febr 2007
In the autumn of 2006, green trials were established on two sites in Denmark: at DLF-TRIFOLIUM’s trial site in Store Heddinge as well as at the golf club Sydsjællands Golfstation. The results of the four years of research will strengthen the support and advice of green keepers and professionals within the “green sector” in Northern Europe.
The project is a joint project between Forest & Landscape Denmark (University of Copenhagen), The Faculty of Agricultural Sciences (University of Aarhus), the Danish Golf Union, Sydsjællands Golfklub, DLF-TRIFOLIUM A/S and other private sponsors. The total budget for the project is approx. € 575,000, and The Directorate for Food, Fisheries and Agri Business has provided € 300,000.
Two participants express their enthusiasm about the project: Birte Boels, Head of research unit at Faculty of Agricultural Sciences:
“We look very much forward to this new collaboration and to contribute with our expertise and know-how within grass science.”
Torben Kastrup, Environmental Consultant at Danish Golf Union:
“This is the first time that a trial green of this standard has been established in Denmark, and the project will definitely put Denmark on the map of scientific research.”
August 2006
The DLF-TRIFOLIUM staff has moved to Kentucky and established a trial site in the area known as “the inner bluegrass“ - an area with rolling green hillsides and the home of some of the finest thoroughbred horse farms in the country. The temperate climate with rainfalls evenly distributed over the year, together with fertile soils, keeps the grass green all year round. The site is impacted by the extreme heat and humidity from the south and frigid cold from the north.
Under these conditions the breeding lines of fodder and amenity grasses will demonstrate their yield potential as well as their tolerance to heat and drought.
The exact same breeding lines are tested under different managements and climatic conditions on DLF-TRIFOLIUM trial sites, in France, Holland, the Czech Republic, Poland, China, UK and Denmark. When combining all this data, the potential of new variety candidates is found.
This year more than 1300 plots of cocksfoot, ryegrass and tall fescue, and over 4000 amenity plots of fescue, ryegrass and bluegrass were established. The first scores are made, and this coming spring, as the new foals are taking their first bite of grass, we will be harvesting and measuring the yield of our first trial.
Oct 2006
The 27th of October 2006 was a special and epoch-making day in DLF-Trifolium. Danish Plant Breeding said goodbye to two outstanding figures; Head of Breeding, Arend Kleinhout, and Variety Administrator Dineke Ritzema, who also celebrated their 25 and 40 years anniversary, respectively. On the same occasion Klaus K. Nielsen, previously Head of Biotechnology in DLF, was welcomed as the new Director of Research & Development.
The farewell reception took place at the company’s breeding station ‘Boelshøj’, which has developed into one of Europe’s most spectacular grass breeding units. Around hundred persons from Denmark and abroad had joined the party to bid the two persons farewell, which due to their work and expertise in grasses have gained a worldwide reputation in the seed business.
DLF’s chairman Benny Kirkebække Christensen and CEO Truels Damsgaard opened the reception by acknowledging Arend and Dineke for their dedicated efforts to bring the company to its current leading position within grasses and clovers. Then followed numerous speeches from persons including collaborators, colleagues, authorities, and finally from the persons celebrating their anniversary themselves. The Danes and the Royal Family in particular holds a long tradition of utilizing Dutch expertise in plant breeding. This phenomena was not only a subject for many speech themes but was also directly manifested by the presentation of Her Majesty the Queen’s medal of reward to Dineke Ritzema