Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84OCTOBER 2016 SEEDWORLD.COM / 61 ALFALFA RESEARCHERS IN the United States will soon benefit from nearly $2 million in new federal funding. The Alfalfa and Forage Research Program (AFRP), administered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), is mulling over applications for $1.85 million in research grants announced earlier this year. Successful applicants will be announced in November. As the fourth most valuable crop in the United States behind corn, soy- beans and wheat, alfalfa has a foothold, but because the alfalfa industry doesn’t have a checkoff to fund research like other row-crop commodities, it’s yield improvement has not kept pace with other cropping choices. The AFRP, initiated in 2014, is designed to fund research and Extension programs that improve alfalfa forage and seed yield and train producers to apply best practices. “Research into critical agricultural science areas like this reach their full potential when coupled with Extension activities,” says Sonny Ramaswamy, NIFA director. Applicants for these grants should keep in mind the importance of reaching out to producers and farmers to share information and apply research findings. “Integrating these two important functions is how agricultural solutions move from the lab to the farm and vice versa,” he says. According to USDA, applicants needed to consider one or more of the following priorities when submitting pro- posals to the AFRP: •  Improving alfalfa forage and seed yield through better nutrient, water and/or pest management. •  Improving persistence of alfalfa stands by lessening biotic or abiotic stresses. •  Improving alfalfa forage and seed harvesting and storage systems to optimize economic returns. •  Improving estimates of alfalfa forage quality as an animal feed to increase forage usage in animal feeds. “There are so many benefits that we tend to take them for granted,” he adds, pointing to the value of forage crops in crop rotations, wildlife habitat restoration and water quality improvement. Another important consideration is that when used as cover crops, forage grasses help prevent soil erosion. “If you want to look back at the dust bowl era, you can certainly see the importance of having some sort of cover on the ground,” Agee says. Breeding for Future Challenges He explains that: “We always need to have forage research, because you never know when another insect pest that affects grasses will emerge. There are some lately that have reared their ugly heads, in Bermuda grass particularly." Dairy and other livestock farmers in the northern U.S. recently benefitted from alfalfa research at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., with the release of several new varieties that combat devastating insect pests as well as improve yields and forage quality. One new variety, SW 9558SBR, targets alfalfa snout beetle, a growing pest in northern New York that was recently spotted across the St. Lawrence River in Ontario, Canada. There are con- cerns it could spread into neighboring states, as well. "It's a high yielding variety that pro- vides some protection against alfalfa snout beetle, and it's got a good line-up of the common disease resistances that we need to have in varieties in this part of the country,” says Donald Viands, a professor of plant breeding and genetics in the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University. “We've been con- tinuing our breeding program so that we can in the near future release some new varieties that have an even a higher level of resistance against alfalfa snout beetle.” The second new variety, SW 315LH, combats another insect threat, the potato leafhopper, which is one of the worst pests on alfalfa in the country. Viands says the potato leafhopper doesn’t overwinter in New York, but arrives each year from the south carried by early spring thunderstorms. SW 315LH was developed specifi- cally for conditions in the state and “has a really high level of resistance to potato leafhopper,” Viands says, adding it also provides good protection against Verticillium wilt. Viands says Cornell researchers have also been working on the next genera- tion of their potato leafhopper resistant variety and that it should be ready to release in the not-too-distant future. “A goal of ours is to get even better levels of resistance to potato leafhop- per, alfalfa snout beetle and other pests,” Viands shares. “We would like to develop a variety that combines those two traits — potato leafhopper and alfalfa snout beetle resistance.” “We always need to have forage research, because you never know when another insect pest that affects grasses will emerge.”” — Chris Agee •  Breeding to address biotic and abiotic stresses that impact forage yield and persistence and the pro- duction of seed for propagation. Chris Agee, who serves as president of the American Forage and Grassland Council, says funding for research initia- tives such as those offered through the AFRP program might reflect a growing recognition of the importance of forage crops. Agee says for years the value of forage grassland has been under- estimated in the U.S., even though it accounts for so much farmland.