The 2024-2025 Recommended Grass and Clover Lists have welcomed 11 new varieties, including two Italian ryegrass, six perennial ryegrass, two lucerne and one festulolium variety.
The RGCL aims to help farmers understand the performance attributes of different varieties, such as yield, persistency, quality and disease resistance.
Each new variety undergoes six years of testing across trial sites, assessing various parameters including total annual yields, seasonal growth, metabolisable energy yield, winter hardiness, and disease resistance.
Only grass and clover varieties demonstrating improvements over existing ones make provisional status.
Reassessment, after an additional five years of trials, determines whether a provisional (PG/PS) variety is recommended for widespread adoption (G).
The Recommended Lists trial programme is funded by the British Society of Plant Breeders, with contributions from AHDB.
With production costs a key concern for livestock farmers, AHDB said maximising forage use on farm can help reduce feed costs and improve efficiency.
Katie Evans, senior engagement manager at the levy board, said that while farmers readily embrace advancements in livestock genetics, reliance on outdated grassland varieties persists.
She said: "Failing to adopt modern varieties represents a missed opportunity to capitalise on significant investments by plant breeders, resulting in superior attributes such as yield, digestibility, and seasonal growth not being utilised by livestock farmers.
“The priority to minimise production costs per unit of output remains a key concern for livestock producers. Increasing forage production on farm presents a viable strategy to reduce reliance on external feed sources.
"Grassland farms in England and Wales hold substantial potential to increase both the quantity and quality of grass and clover produced and consumed.”
The 2024/2025 RGCL handbook and full lists for merchants will be available for download from the AHDB website starting today (30 May).
