Seeds of success: Breeding the grasses we’ll be grazing in 2050

Dr Gillian Young shows the half-sib breeding stage of the programme.
It’s one of the world’s most important forage crops, but with changing climates, restrictions on chemical inputs and a pressure to do more with less, could a new wave of perennial ryegrass varieties offer solutions to make our farms 2050-ready?
The Agri Food and Biosciences Institute’s extensive grass breeding programme includes over 10 hectares of grass trials set out in 3,000 plots.