Recent climate change reports are clearly showing that Western Europe, like other parts of the world, is going to be confronted with increasing periods of heat and drought. This may jeopardise the yield of the grass species currently used most often in Flanders, the perennial (or English) ryegrass.
Anticipating these changes five years ago, researchers at Ghent University’s department of plant production started to consider a more robust alternative.
“We quickly identified tall fescue as the most promising candidate species, since it has the well-known characteristic of being very resistant against heat and drought,” explains project leader Mathias Cougnon. “It is also abundant in Flanders and neighbouring countries.”
To ascertain the positive features of tall fescue, the research team sowed various fields of grass of about 10 square metres and regularly mowed them to compare the amount of biomass produced by different species in the same periods. For this practical side of the project, the team was supported by the Flemish Institute for Agriculture and Fisheries Research.
The results lived up to the team’s expectations: They demonstrated that tall fescue on average yields 20% more biomass a year than perennial ryegrass. In drought periods, tall fescue yielded up to 60% more.
The right variety
However, while the grass species is commonly found along dykes and canals in Flanders, it is not yet often sown to feed livestock.“That’s because the species poses important challenges,” explains Cougnon. “The feed value is lower than that of perennial ryegrass, animals find it less tasty, and the leaves are sometimes so harsh that they can cause wounds.”
Cows and sheep, in other words, don’t tend to like to eat it and don’t get much protein out of it, with the consequence of less milk and meat production for their owners.
Yet in Southern Europe, particularly in the south of France, tall fescue is commonly used in the agriculture sector. “But the agriculture there is far less intensive than here,” says Cougnon.
To adapt the grass to the needs of the agriculture in Flanders, the researchers decided to breed a new variety of tall fescue.
The research team first raised about 6,000 tall fescue plants from populations found here and in neighbouring countries. “Just as you have different varieties of apples, like jonagold or golden delicious, you have different varieties within the grass species,” explains Cougnon.
The team then analysed how resistant the plants were against diseases, how nutritious they were and how soft their leaves felt. “To examine the softness of the leaves, we used a simple technique,” Cougnon explains. “We stroked them with our fingers and gave them a score from one to five.”
In the end, the researchers made a final selection of the four plants with the softest leaves, the best resistance against diseases and the best growing rate. These were then crossed to create a new variety. Femelle (pictured above) is a contraction of Festuca and Melle: respectively the scientific name of tall fescue and the name of the East Flanders town where the research team’s testing infrastructure is situated.
The quality of the new grass variety is now being examined by authorities to make sure it meets the EU’s criteria for commercial use. If it does, Femelle could be introduced to the market within two years.
However, the creation of Femelle is only a starting point for the department’s research. “We will keep on striving to improve the quality of tall fescue through our breeding programme,” says Cougnon. For this purpose, the team is now carrying out experiments involving sheep in order to understand better which factors affect the preference for different tall fescue varieties.
