It is estimated that in Argentina there are more than 50 million heads of cattle and that more than 20 percent of that stock is located in the Northeast region (NEA), the second in importance for livestock activity after the Pampas. In this area, most systems are linked to pastures, in which animals feed directly in natural fields and environments that were cultivated with different foraging species.
Through various studies -wrote Cecilia Fernández Castañón from the Área de Comunicación CONICET Nordeste-, it has been identified that the main limitations of NEA pastoral systems are linked to the nutritional value of pastures, which impacts meat production. With the aim of providing possible solutions to this problem and obtaining better yields, specialists from CONICET at the Instituto de Botánica del Nordeste (Ibone, CONICET - UNNE) develop different projects that seek to advance the genetic improvement of foraging species.
Through various scientific techniques, the group of Genética y mejoramiento de especies forrajeras species is generating cultivars that seek to optimize the yields of the livestock sector. With the new varieties obtained, different results can be achieved, such as sustained growth throughout the stations, more tolerance to flooding, greater nutritional value, greater persistence in grazing, nitrogen incorporation into the soil-plastic-animal system, among other characteristics.
Some of these varieties of foraging species have already been registered in the Instituto Nacional de Semillas (INASE) and are part of agreements to be marketed by companies of the seed industry. In addition, the research group continues to develop essays in different parts of the country to evaluate the results and yields in different environments.
Pastures for each need #
The process of developing a new variety begins with the identification of a productive problem. Based on that need, researchers begin to work to incorporate the necessary characteristics into plants, with procedures that can last between 10 and 14 years.
Once the hybrid is obtained in the laboratory, the materials cross the formal process of evaluation of foraging based on a method developed in the United States, which is applied throughout the world to obtain new varieties. During that processes multiple evaluations are being carried out, until the expected results and send them to the IBONE for review and subsequent registration in the Registro Nacional de la Propiedad de Cultivares.
“One of the first cultivars obtained and registered in the INASE is from the Paspalum genre called Cambá FCA. It is a type of grass that is very well adapted to environments that have transitory waterlogging problems, which are very common in the region", explains the CONICET researcher at the IBONE and responsible for the area of genetics and improvement of foraging species, Carlos Acuña.
They also developed another variety adapted to well drained soils and with high nutritional value, called Chané FCA and a kind of horqueta grass (Paspalum Notatum) that allows good growth throughout the year, called Boyero Unne. “One of the main benefits of all these species is that being native to the region are very adapted,” says Acuña.
Among the most recent group achievements, the development of a cultivar of the Stylosanthes guianensis species, a legume, which they called Pionera UNNE is highlighted. “Its main advantage is that it can fix nitrogen, which results in a greater concentration of proteins by increasing the digestibility of the entire diet of the animals that consume it. In addition, the fixed nitrogen is transferred to the rest of the system (both to the ground and to the plant and the animal), improving the growth of the other species. By increasing nitrogen, carbon fixation also increases, so the benefits are multiple,” describes the researcher.
This new variety, which is in the last registration stage in the INASE and is being evaluated in environments of different parts of the country, can grow in very poor, sandy or low pH soils, such as those that abound in the country’s NEA. Its use, explains Acuña, can also help improve soil characteristics, favoring the behavior of other crops that can be used in rotations. In addition to being used for direct consumption, it can also be used for the creation of foraging reserves when cut, dry and henified for storage.
Currently, the group is working on different projects linked to the Horqueta Pasto, with the aim of achieving greater grazing resistance and better growths in the winter season. In addition, they seek to optimize the production of seeds that allow using native fodder species in the fields dedicated to livestock production, since this can be a differential when it comes to the evaluation of the origin of the products obtained.
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