Farming and research - working together to develop grassland varieties resilient to water stress to mitigate and adapt to climate change

Extreme weather events like flooding and drought are becoming more prevalent as the effects of climate change begin to impact. To increase resilience to these, grass and clover breeders at IBERS are working to develop plants with stronger, deeper root systems and improved root-soil interactions leading to greater water-use-efficiency and improved soil hydrology. Using participatory research and working with industry partners, eight commercial development farms were selected to cover a range of soil types, geographical areas and livestock sectors (ruminant and mono-gastric) across the UK. In Autumn 2014 and Spring 2015: two 1 ha areas of single variety grass leys: Festulolium (cv AberNiche) and hybrid ryegrass (cv AberEve) were established to accord with each farm crop rotation and managed using their standard farm practice. The grasses were selected to form the baseline for equivalent evaluations of novel grass and clovers selected as fit-for-purpose for inclusion later in the project and for developing strategies to deliver best practice. Using a multi-disciplined approach the project SUREROOT employs two BBSRC National Capability Facilities, and the eight Commercial development farms to assess the performance of novel grass and clover populations either independently or grown as mixtures to see whether changes in individual plant design, when reproduced at the field scale, can provide a significant environmental service. This paper focusses on the role of the Commercial Development Farmers in the assessment of the field performance of novel grasses and clovers designed to withstand extreme weather events and to mitigate their worst scenarios under diverse UK livestock management systems