The Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture is the knowledge and service centre for agriculture in Bavaria. It is a state authority directly subordinate to the Bavarian State Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry, whose institutes and departments are responsible for tasks in application-oriented research and development, in the experimental system, in law enforcement and in education and training.

At the Institute of Crop Production and Plant Breeding (IPZ) of the LfL, the Bavaria-wide state experimental system, monitoring programmes, own experimental areas and special equipment (e.g. rain-out shelter or a moving field system), modern laboratories, climate chambers, greenhouses, various research facilities and long-term developed genetic resources are available for the fulfilment of research tasks.

IPZ 4b (working group “Breeding research on forage plants und grassland systems”) brings together information on all areas of seed utilisation for forage crops in Bavaria. As a result, trials are carried out and advisory documents produced for all the aforementioned sub-areas. This applies to both conventional and organic farming.

This complements the traditionally established area of breeding research in fodder plants with a constantly updated view of agricultural practice and its changing needs.

Role in the Legume Generation project

The Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture (LfL, Bayerische Landesanstalt für Landwirtschaft, Freising-Weihenstephan, Germany) is member of the Clover Innovation Community and also of the working group “Governance and finance models” of the Legume Generation project. The LfL provides two very different test sites for white clover and one test site for red clover. We are involved in the breeding research for clover.