EUROPEAN-SEED.COM I EUROPEAN SEED I 29 Matt Grewal of S&W Seed Company in an alfalfa field. Gardner shares that his company provides expertise in agricultural breeding, production and processing for the alfalfa industry. “Each day that passes, two major issues affect the world’s population. First, the population of the world continues to increase and secondly, the availability of arable land continues to decrease. This creates a dire set of circumstances for farmers trying to feed a population increasingly wanting a diet which includes many of the foods that alfalfa hay, the “queen of for- ages,” supports, including milk, cheeses and beef. Our company is capitalizing on these very important trends to help farmers combat the challenges of today, while keeping an eye on provid- ing sustainable solutions for tomorrow.” LUCERNE ADDS VALUE TO THE FARM Farms with a high demand for protein rich feed can become more self-sufficient by growing lucerne. Sowing a field of lucerne helps to reduce the costs for external protein sources and dependency on fluctuating world market prices, leading to improved economy. Cernoch says: “One field of lucerne will generate more than 3.000 kg protein/ha due to its high content of protein (18-20%), com- pared to forage grass (14%), maize (9%) or soya (1.200 kg protein/ ha). In addition to high protein content and better self-sufficiency, lucerne is also an excellent mixture component with grasses and an excellent complement to maize in the feed recipes. Finally, the crop is easy to establish and saves input cost on fertilizers.” BREEDING TARGETS Gardner indicates that for more than 35 years, S&W Seed Company has bred lucerne varieties of the highest quality with superior genetic traits; the unique ability to grow in challeng- ing soil conditions and to generate outstanding crop yield. “Our specialty is high-yield, non-dormant alfalfa varieties focused on maximizing profit per acre for the farmer, regardless of soil and water salinity.” YIELD INCREASE Cernoch mentions that similar to most other agricultural crops, dry matter (DM) yield is the main breeding goal. “Very often DM yield depends on disease resistance, which can be a limiting factor for yield. In addition to DM yield, important breeding tasks are feeding quality like protein content and cell fiber digestibil- ity, lodging, seed production and others. “ Gardner adds that S&W are actively breeding in the US and the rest of the world for a variety of traits. “We are best known for our salt tolerant lines that are the most tolerant lines in the world. These varieties that are developed for salt tolerance are subjected to soils within the root zone with water having salin- ity levels of up to EC 15. This would be the equivalent of irrigat- ing with water having an EC value of 10. Several of our alfalfa varieties are currently marketed as salt tolerant varieties, and are also very productive in soils without salt problems. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and University of California researchers tested one of our varieties in well drained sand tanks at the Salinity Laboratory in Riverside in 2001 using irrigation nutrient solutions with EC 15 and EC 25. With a 275 day growing period, this variety yielded 11.5 tons/acre with EC 15 solution and 6 tons/acre with EC 25 solution. So it shows that selective breeding of alfalfa varieties for salt tolerance does work! SW 9215 and SW 8421S have at least as much salt toler- ance as SW 9720.” REGIONAL DIFFERENCES Lucerne is produced under various climatic conditions. One of the most important traits for lucerne varieties is fall dormancy, i.e. the ability to stop growth before winter. Varieties with strong fall dormancy are mainly suited in the Nordic conditions, where it is necessary to stop growth before winter in order to survive. At the other extreme, in Southern conditions, varieties with strong winter growth are asked for, as these lucerne cultivars have a higher yield productivity in mild winters compared to dry and hot summer. The US fall dormancy scale has a range from 1 -11: •  FD 1-2 covers varieties with very strong fall dormancy used mainly in Nordic and continental conditions •  FD 3-5 are varieties used for example in West & Central Europe and the European part of Russia •  FD 6-8 are semi dormant varieties mostly for the Southern part of Europe •  FD 9-11 are non-dormant varieties suited for the Mediterranean region, North Africa, and other areas in the Southern hemisphere. Cernoch indicates that DLF is conducting a range of national variety trials in many countries across Europe. “In the current research program, the main germplasm comes from vari- eties with a dormancy score in the range four to five. This is the most common type used across much of Central, Eastern and Northern Europe.” Gardner: “The climate in the western U.S., where a major- ity of our company’s production is located, is ideally suited for high-quality alfalfa seed production.”