Location: Forage and Range Research
Project Number: 2080-21500-002-027-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 1, 2025
End Date: Jul 31, 2030
Objective:
The USDA ARS Forage and Range Research Unit (FRR) in Logan, Utah, develops improved plants, genetics, and associated know-how to ensure resilient and productive rangelands, pastures, and turf landscapes in semi-arid regions. The USDA FRR currently has 45 grass and forb varieties in commercial production, with 20-year certified seed sales over $447 million and $786 million added annually in forage and grazing value to the 13 million acres where they have been planted. Thus, these varieties are critical components of land management and livestock production throughout the semi-arid western USA, including in Utah.
The FRR is expected to release approximately 20 new, improved, perennial grass and forb varieties in the next 5 years. The characterization and description of the newly developed perennial grasses and forbs is a mission critical component of the plant breeding process. The new varieties must be distinct, uniform, and stable (DUS) in comparison to the other varieties on the market. To describe and document DUS, each new variety must undergo evaluation of performance, morphological structure, and genetic distinctness after breeding and selection is completed but prior to being released for commercialization. Without this data, new varieties are not eligible for intellectual protection nor certified seed production, nor can any performance claims/uses be specified; thereby, delaying and hindering their marketability and adoption by end-users. Obtaining the data to document DUS is expensive, laborious, and best when the evaluation is associated with an unbiased independent source.
Therefore, the objective of this proposal is to determine the agricultural merit and potential commercialization of proposed new perennial grass and forb varieties developed by the USDA FRR by evaluating and documenting their uniformity and distinctness in comparison to standard varieties currently on the market. The data will support variety registration, plant variety protection application, seed certification application, and end-use marketing. Thus, the data will benefit USDA, the seed industry, farmers, ranchers, land managers, and other end-users of these improved varieties.
Approach:
The USDA ARS Forage and Range Research Unit (FRR) is expected to release approximately 20 new perennial grass and forb varieties in the next 5 years. They are touted to be more drought tolerant, have improved forage production and nutritive value, and provide enhanced ecosystem services including reduced wildfires, improved wildlife and pollinator habitat, and/or drought tolerant turf for golf courses, municipalities, and homeowners. A non-biased evaluation of their distinctness, uniformity, and stability (DUS) is a critical last step for their successful release. The Cooperator has extensive experience conducting agronomic and turf trials.
Sub-objective 1: Document the agronomic and turf performance of the new varieties. The Cooperator will conduct three trials: a rangeland, an irrigated pasture, and a turf trial. Each trial will be replicated and repeated over three years, and the 20 new releases will be compared to at least two standard varieties (e.g., a total of 40 checks). Establishment and persistence, forage mass and nutritive value will be determined on the rangeland and irrigated pasture trials. Harvests will be conducted up to three times per year using a mechanical harvester and subsamples of each plot dried and ground for forage nutritive analysis. Establishment, turf cover and quality, and regrowth after mowing will be determined on turf trial. Turf will be maintained using minimal irrigation.
Sub-objective 2: Characterize morphological structure. To detect morphological distinctness, replicated spaced-plant trials will be established at multiple locations. Nineteen morphological characters will be evaluated using two reproductive culms of at least 30 plants of the new varieties and commercial checks. Morphological traits will include relative maturity (i.e., days to 50% anthesis), mature plant height, flag leaf height, length, and width, leaf pubescence, inflorescence length and width, and lemma and glume length and width.
Sub-objective 3: DNA fingerprinting/molecular characterization. The Cooperator will determine the relative size of DNA fragments from plants by capillary electrophoresis or related methods of molecular analysis. The cooperator will use highly parallelized next-generation DNA sequencing techniques to determine short DNA sequence reads, approximately 75 to 300 bp in total length, from complex plant DNA libraries. Approximately 30 mg of fresh leaf sample will be harvested from at least 24 individual plants from putative new varieties and commercial checks. Leaf samples will be lyophilized and DNA extracted. Plant genotypes will be determined using a genotype-by-sequencing (GBS) approach on an Illumina NextSeq. GBS data will be used to draft genome assemblies and to evaluate the significance of population differentiation.