Legume Generation Report 6

The Clover Innovation Community (IC) is built around four decades of partnership between Germinal Horizon (GER) and Aberystwyth University (ABER). Our aim is to improve the efficiency of clover breeding by developing pre-breeding material and methodological pipelines that can be used to produce elite commercial cultivars that overcome systemic production difficulties and that will benefit the sustainability of grassland agriculture.

As a group, the Clover IC has set achievable goals for work in both species, red and white clover, to be met within the lifespan of Legume Generation. These form a holistic approach to improvement in clover breeding. Work carried out in Legume Generation will inform germplasm selection for trait improvement and bring efficiencies to incorporating improved traits into commercial cultivars.

The goal of the Clover Innovation Community is to take a scientific approach to direct funded research to improve the potential of new red and white clover cultivars. The two species have different applications in farming, especially in sustainable grazing and mixed farming systems. Red clover is predominantly used as a forage crop (silage and hay), whilst white clover is used in mixed grazed swards. Both are important for nitrogen fixation in conventional systems and especially in organic systems. Despite this important role, genetic gains for key traits such as forage/seed yield and persistency have lagged behind that of the forage grasses with which they are grown. Both clover species are relatively undomesticated, and hence, there is scope to increase genetic gains relatively quickly. There is great diversity of agronomic relevance held in European clover germplasm collections.