Seedtech, the Waterford-based wholesale seed company, has partnered with DLF Trifolium to launch a new wholesale seed business in Ireland called DLF Seeds. The new joint venture (JV) will be based in Waterford, with a focus on supplying Irish distributors with grass, maize and forage seeds.

It will seek to expand and develop Seedtech’s already substantial seed trialling and selection operation, aiming to increase its portfolio of grassland trial plots to 3,000 by 2017. The intention is also to build a grass seed packing facility in Belview, Co Waterford, next year.

This is a significant development for grass breeding in Ireland. DLF Trifolium is owned by Danish farmers and is the world’s largest producer of grass and clover seed, with a 25% share of the global market and a 45% share of the EU market.

This JV provides the resources to allow new grass varieties from the DLF stable to be trialled and brought to market in Ireland.

Seedtech, family owned for five generations and headed by Roy Power, is part of the Avrum Group. It will revert back to its original business, concentrating on the wholesale and trial of cereal seeds.

General manager of DLF Seeds, Paul Flanagan, said that conducting local trials and selecting varieties to meet the specific requirements of the Irish farmer, married with DLF’s breeding lines, will speed-up the introduction of the new varieties to help drive output and productivity.