b'GOAAAALLLLLLLLLLHOW TO SCORE THE BEST KENTUCKY BLUEGRASS VARIETIES.BY: MARCEL BRUINS AND TREENA HEINP oapratensis,alsoknownasResearch Station Manager at Barenbrug Smooth-stalked meadow grass,Holland BV; Cody Gyllenberg, Assistant Smooth meadow grass and KentuckyOperations Manager at Columbia River bluegrass, is a perennial species thatsSeed & Tom Brentano, owner and breeder among the most popular choices for lawns,at Novel Ag; Crystal Rose-Fricker, golf courses and sports pitches as it guar- President of Pure Seed & Pure Seed antees a strong surface. As a cool seasonTesting, Austin Fricker, VP of Research grass, it is widely spread over Europe, theat Pure Seed Testing and Dr. Melodee cooler regions in North America, manyFraser, Director of Research at Pure parts in North Asia and some other coun- Seed Testing East; and Cord Schumann, tries around the world. The origins of thisHead of Turf Grass Breeding at Deutsche species lie in Europe and it was brought toSaatveredelung (DSV). Melodee Fraser Christian OchsenbeinNorth America by the Spanish. In this issue, we present commentsBREEDING GOALS ANDfrom leading P. pratensis breeders aboutMAJOR AIMStheir breeding goals and the challenges ofFor all these breeding firms, the main working with this complex plant. Part 2breeding targets in developing a new of this article will focus on breeding forsmooth-stalked meadow grass variety, are disease resistance, access to genetics andgenerally similar. A new variety must have coming breeding innovations.a good seed yield to be produced by seed Our breeding experts are Henkgrowers, it must be homogeneous for it to van der Aa, Smooth Meadow Grassbe considered for registration and it must Breeder at DLF; Dr. Christoph Grieder,meet quality demands for the end-user. Forage Crop Breeder of Agroscope,Indeed, Grieder notes that seed pro-Zrich in Switzerland and Dr. Christianduction is often an issue, and improve-Ochsenbein, General Manager at DSP;ment of this trait has gained considerableTim van der WeijdeTim van der Weijde, Grass Breeder &attention during the last decade.Thousands of new candidate varieties are evaluated and selected for different traits in the P. pratensis breeding nurseries of Barenbrug. Source: Barenbrug14IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'