Teagasc and Goldcrop signed a commercial agreement in 2013. Such is the slow nature of grass breeding that the first variety to come out of the new agreement has only made it on to the recommended list in 2019. This is in fact one year earlier than expected. The variety is called Oakpark and it was launched in Oak Park at the end of February.

Goldcrop won the tender in 2013 to propagate and market all Teagasc-bred grass and clover varieties.

Pat Conaghy, grass breeder, Teagasc Oak Park.

All grass and clover breeding in Teagasc takes place at Oak Park in Co Carlow.

The principle breeder is Pat Conaghy and he explained what he is looking for in a variety: “The aim is to breed varieties that are good for spring and autumn growth, ground cover, persistency and digestibility. It is also important that varieties have good leaf to stem ratio to minimise heading in silage aftermath, have good rust resistance and produce enough seeds for the variety to be sold commercially. Silage yield and summer grazing yield are not as important traits – they are more maintenance traits.”

Breeding grass varieties is an incredibly slow process. The variety Oakpark was first crossed in 2003.

Sixteen years later, it is on the recommended lists. The big limitations are time and seed supply.

A new variety like Oakpark started out when two grass plants were cross-pollinated.

This crossing produced a very small number of seeds and for a grass plant to produce seeds, it must be vernalised – that is, to go through a winter. This is why reseeded fields never go to seed in the year they were sown.

Pat and his team measure and monitor the cultivars, looking for ones that are promising and ruling out those that are not. After around seven years of product development, a potential new variety is ready to be trialled.

These trials and tests take about five years. If a variety passes initial tests, it will be put forward for distinction, uniformity and stability (DUS) tests. This process makes sure that varieties are different from any other variety and have uniform growth characteristics.

Finally, for a variety to be sold, there must be seed available. The commercialisation of the variety will take over two years.

Marketing and distribution

Goldcrop is responsible for seed propagation, marketing and wholesale distribution of the Teagasc grass and clover varieties bred since 2013.

In return, Teagasc receive a royalty from seed sales.

Teagasc director Gerry Boyle is happy with the progress made to date: “Oakpark is the first of a steady stream of perennial grass varieties that will be created from the Teagasc grass breeding programme in Carlow and sold by Goldcrop. It is fantastic that Goldcrop can now propagate and market this variety for Irish farmers,” Boyle said.

“Teagasc is really satisfied that its varieties are being marketed and sold by an Irish owned company. One of the main reasons for having an Irish grass breeding programme is to create varieties suitable for Irish grassland farmers,” he added.

More Teagasc-bred varieties are expected to be on the recommended list over coming years.

Glenmore and Gleaneagle are expected to be on the list next year.

These are two late diploids like Oakpark. Oakpark has a pasture profit index (PPI) of €118 and ranks number 27 out of 35 on the PPI.

Teagasc has a total of nine grass varieties and six white clover varieties on the recommended lists.