PRESS RELEASE
Aber®Green wins NIAB Variety Cup
The perennial ryegrass AberGreenhas become only the second forage grass variety to receive the prestigious Variety Cup from the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB).
Awarded only periodically (since 1986), the NIAB Variety Cup recognises varieties from agricultural, horticultural or ornamental sectors that have made a major contribution to crop productivity through improved quality, disease resistance, grower return or commercial success. In 2015, the award has been presented to Aberystwyth University’s Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS), breeder of AberGreen, and its commercial partner Germinal. This award is the latest in a long list of accolades for the plant breeding team that works in a well-established longterm partnership with Germinal.
AberGreen, which first entered the industry’s independent Recommended List in 2011, is one of the latest ryegrass varieties from the Aber High Sugar Grass range. It has been bred as part of a 30 year programme to improve nutritional quality alongside dry matter yield and other important agronomic characteristics. It follows AberDart, the first commercially available Aber High Sugar Grass, which became the first forage variety to win the NIAB Variety Cup in 2003in recognition of its improved quality combined with excellent agronomic performance.
Professor Mike Gooding, Director of IBERS, said on accepting the award: “I am honoured to receivethe NIAB Variety Cup on behalf of the grass breeding team at IBERS. This award is significant in that it builds on the distinguished heritage of crop improvement at Aberystwyth lasting nearly 100 years. AberGreen demonstrates our continued commitment to combining leading agricultural performancewithimproved environmental sustainability: an essential combinationto deliverresilientfarm businesses and food security."
Professor Athole Marshall, Head of Plant Breeding at IBERS, said:“We are delighted to receive the NIAB Variety Cup for the second time, in recognition of the dedication and passion of the talented, world-recognised team of grass breeders at IBERS. AberGreen perfectly illustrates our aim of breeding varieties not only for their excellent combination of yield, quality and ground cover but also for traits such as water soluble carbohydrate content which delivers both improved animal performance and environmental benefits.”
Outstanding dry matter yield combined with exceptional D-value make the intermediate diploid AberGreen one of the very highest ranked perennial ryegrasses for total Metabolisable Energy (ME) yield. With its higher water soluble carbohydrate content but without a proportional increase in protein, AberGreen exhibits what breeders describe as close to the optimum forage protein-to-energy balance for efficient livestock production.
“Ruminant animals are poor converters of grass protein into meat and milk,” explains Germinal’s Ben Wixey. “This is largely due to the imbalance between readily available energy and protein within grass. In a grazing context this commonly results in only around 20% of the protein from herbage actually being used for production. The rest is excreted, which is financially costly for the farmer and problematic for the environment as nitrogenous waste converts to greenhouse gases.
“There are therefore real benefits in providing a better protein-to-energy balance in grass, and this is exemplified more than ever before in AberGreen. With the higher water soluble carbohydrate in the grass providing more readily available energy in the rumen, more of the nitrogen released from the breakdown of protein is used by the rumen microbes for the production of meat and milk, and less is excreted as greenhouse gases.”
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Pictures supplied:
William Gilbert (right), Germinal managing director, and Germinal seed production manager John Fairey with the NIAB Variety Cup, awarded to the Aber High Sugar Grass AberGreen in 2015.
Alan Lovatt, senior grass breeder at IBERS Aberystwyth University, and Professor Mike Gooding, director of IBERS, in a plot of AberGreen.
Notes to editors:
® Aber is a Registered Trademark of Germinal Holdings Ltd.
8 July 2015
Further information: Ben Wixey
Germinal GB
Tel: 01522 868714 / 07990 578550
Follow @wearegerminal for regular and topical information from trial plots, farm and field, on all things relating to forage.
Issued by Matt Mellor, Agribusiness Communications Ltd
Tel: 01694 731777E-mail:
The text from this news release can be downloaded directly from the ABC press centre at
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