Bar Tech February 2022

Currently, we are running trials across five different sites around the UK and Ireland, and we will be establishing a further new site this year. Researching and generating data about the Barenbrug bred grasses and solutions, from across a range of climatic locations, is invaluable to understanding how our grass and forage genetics can help to generate practical agronomic and environmental gains across UK farming systems.

Many of the trials are duplicated across different sites to collect a broader understanding of the grass varieties behaviour in different agricultural regions, and we are continually developing the range of species we are testing as well as looking into new technologies for testing our varieties and mixtures.

The key Barenbrug grass trials for 2022 will see the development of the grass, forage and beneficial crop variety testing across numerous species and sites. An evaluation of multiple red clover varieties from different genetic backgrounds will trail their persistency and investigate new options for improving ground cover and growth in long term swards. Finally, we will be progressing our new multispecies option, the Barenbrug UK adaptation of the heavily researched and trialled global Barenbrug Nutriherb solution.

At the time of the release of this edition most trial sites have experienced a very mild winter, and autumn sowings are establishing well. The first application of spring fertilisers will take place in the next few weeks (location and weather dependant of course) and we are looking forward to welcoming guests to our various sites and getting back to normality once more.

Grass breeding trials and research around the globe.

We continue working with the BSPB/NIAB recommended grass list systems across the UK and Ireland, as well as with our colleagues, throughout the Barenbrug Group, on international recommended lists. These testing systems are important but we see a need for a broader set of information and as such, we are increasing the level of our grass research. We have started this process over the past few years at Loughgall in Northern Ireland. Our Barenbrug trials are run by the grass breeding team from The Agri-food & Biosciences Institute (AFBI) at Loughgall, who are Barenbrug grass breeding partners for the UK.

Our research trials will now extend to three other trial sites across the UK, and as the systems develop, we will start to look at a much broader range of information from both above and below the ground, as well as silage and grazing management.  

We now have over six years’ worth of grass data, collated from these trial sites. The current data is predominately perennial and hybrid ryegrass based, both straight varieties and mixtures but has now been expanded to include a range of other grass species including Timothy and Barenbrug’s unique soft leaved tall fescues, amongst others.