The economics of producing food, fiber, and energy products is a major issue in providing food security. Forage crops are the foundation of livestock and dairy enterprises in North America. According to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, in 2019, 30.6 million acres of hay and haylage were harvested, worth more than $20.6 billion. These figures are conservative estimates of forage production since significant acreage is devoted to pastures and rangelands for which no estimates of economic value are readily available.

Use of leguminous forages minimizes nitrogen fertilization because they fix atmospheric N, thus reducing inputs and the risk of environmental contamination from fertilizer usage. The fibrous roots of grass species reduce soil erosion and capture environmental contaminants. Because these forage species are perennial, land disturbance is minimized, thus reducing the potential for soil erosion. In addition, they sequester carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Breeding of perennial forage crops has resulted in improved cultivars that make livestock and dairy production more economical by reducing inputs and increasing outputs. Forage species, such as switchgrass, have potential for energy production. Compared to other types of crop species, perennial forage species enable more sustainable agricultural systems. Improved forage cultivars translate to benefits to agricultural producers of animal and energy products. The seed industry benefits from the production and marketing of improved cultivars. All Americans benefit from food security, reduced costs of food and energy, and protection of the environment by reduced use of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers.

During the last few decades, the number of forage breeders in North America has been decreasing. The number of forage researchers in the USA decreased by 60% between 1984 and 2009. The number of extension workers declined by 30% (Rouquette et al., 2009). In some state experiment stations, as a forage scientist has left their position, they were not replaced. For example, forage breeding positions have been lost at Iowa State University, Oklahoma State University, and Kansas State University. The number of forage scientists at USDA-ARS also has declined. When the forage breeder at USDA-ARS in Mandan, ND, retired, his position was not replaced. The Noble Foundation, a private research institute, ceased research activities in alfalfa genetics in 2021.

There are few private breeding companies, with ongoing consolidations further reducing their numbers. Currently, three main companies constitute the bulk of private alfalfa breeding in the USA (Forage Genetics, Intl., S&W Seed Company, and Corteva Agriscience). These companies work on few perennial forage species, primarily alfalfa with minor efforts on a few grass and clover species. Several major international forage seed companies focus on cool-season grasses and clovers, but most of that breeding is done outside the USA. Many forage species of importance in North America are receiving no attention by private breeders.

As budgets and the number of scientists have been reduced, the need for cooperative research is more essential than ever. Most forage breeders work on multiple forage species, thus diluting efforts on individual species. Because these forage species are perennial, establishing fields is less frequent than with annual crops. Therefore, seed is sold less frequently per unit land area compared to that of annual crops. Unless forage cultivars are broadly adapted for use across a large range of environments, seed companies are not interested in new cultivars because of the limited market. All of these factors point to the need for cooperative research to make significant advances in developing improved forage cultivars adapted to a wide range of environments. The current NE-1710 project fosters the interactions necessary to achieve goals with diminishing resources without unnecessary duplication.

This project aligns with the following NIFA Priority Science Areas:

1.     Agroclimate science. There is a need for forage crops that will be productive under abiotic stresses, including drought, flooding, cold and warm temperatures, and soil salinity and acidity.


2.     Bioeconomy-Bioenergy-Bioproducts. Cooperative research is needed for developing cultivars of bioenergy crops with improved biomass and quality, while protecting these crops from biotic and abiotic stress conditions.


3.     Human nutrition. Breeding crops with higher forage yield and quality, longevity, and resistance or tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress conditions will ensure an ample supply of good quality feed to animals, an essential step in securing food for consumers.


4.     Sustainable agricultural production systems. Diverse, perennial forage systems and increased cover crop use in annual crop production are important for increasing agricultural sustainability.

Without cooperative research through the multistate project, the ability to accomplish these priorities would be severely curtailed. In the absence of a cooperative research network of forage researchers, new forage cultivars would be more narrowly adapted and the scope and scale of research outputs would be more limited. Farmers rely on forage breeders to improve the productivity of these crops, especially when new diseases, insects, and other problems arise, and the impact on providing feed for the livestock industries, especially for beef and dairy production, would be huge. 

The impacts of the proposed research will be significant. Germplasm with new traits will be available to private and other public breeders to use in their programs for developing improved cultivars. Improved forage cultivars directly released from the multistate project scientists will make seed and forage production more economical for farmers and seed companies. Development of breeding methods, both traditional and molecular methods, will enhance efficiencies and effectiveness of improving forages for traits of low heritability or from unadapted genetic backgrounds. Data from forage yield trials across multiple locations and years will be available for breeders to use for selecting experimental populations that will be released as cultivars and available for licensing, for the seed industry in advertising seed of the cultivars, and for extension educators and farmers when selecting cultivars for their locations. These data also will help breeders to better understand the broad adaptation and resilience of forage cultivars. Development of forage species as feedstocks for the biofuel industry ultimately will contribute toward more secure and sustainable energy production. Between CO2 driven climate change and rising prices of petroleum products, long-term focus needs to be on renewable, sustainable energy sources. The overall impact will be more economical food and energy production while reducing negative environmental impacts in the agricultural systems.

The scientists cooperating in this project have the ability to accomplish the proposed research. The current NE-1710 project consists of most of the North American forage breeders, who have cooperated in research for many years. In addition to scientists at state agricultural experiment stations, the multistate cooperative research among forage scientists has evolved over the years to include more scientists from USDA-ARS, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canadian universities, and the Land Institute. These forage breeders and scientists have extensive experience in research on forages.

Many accomplishments have already been realized in the form of improved germplasm and cultivars; information on breeding methods for improving forage yield; and data on forage yield of multiple species for use by breeders, the seed industry, farmers, and extension educators. Extension presentations and information on the web have informed various stakeholders of the new information and cultivars developed by this project. Other scientists have been informed of the research results through professional publications and presentations at professional conferences. The scientists have the equipment along with field, greenhouse, and laboratory facilities to accomplish the proposed work.

Because of the long-term nature of research on perennial forage species, some of the research initiated in the last few years will continue into the next project period. Some of the research, however, will be new as a result of the collaborative efforts and discussions during our technical committee meetings. The research includes both traditional breeding and new molecular genetic technologies, and will enhance adaptation and resilience to changing environments. In addition, emphasis will continue in cooperative research on plant species for biofuel use as well as use for the livestock industry.

Funding for these collaborative efforts would be only partially covered by the multistate-Hatch funding. Most of the funding would come from other sources such as the seed industry, royalties from seed sales of cultivars, private sources, and various public funding sources at the state and federal levels (primarily competitive grants). In the past, the existence of the NE-1710 project and its predecessors have been a key factor in helping to secure other grant funds, such as USDA-NIFA grants, for accomplishing the research goals.

This proposal continues a long-term, continent-wide research project that has provided multi-location testing and selection environments to a number of forage and biofuel breeding projects. The current multistate Hatch project, NE1710, which ends in 2022, has grown to include forage and cover crop grass and legume breeders and bioenergy researchers throughout the US and Canada. Due to this geographical breadth, we have been able to implement experiments with nation-wide benefit and cannot be accomplished by any breeder individually. Individual participants in the proposal have their own research projects narrowly focused on species adapted to their regions, and the needs of producers at their locations. Our goal with this multi-location research project is to identify several major objectives that complement each location’s individual research projects but that, through the collaborative arrangements provided by the umbrella of this project, provide a larger geographical context in order to ensure new cultivars will have broad adaptability in different geographies, flexibility in a range of different cropping systems or uses, and resilience to shifting weather patterns.

In this renewal, we have developed projects related to the major perennial herbaceous crop groups, viz., legumes (alfalfa, birdsfoot trefoil, clovers), annual cover crops, cool-season grasses (tall fescue, orchardgrass, meadow bromegrass, intermediate wheatgrass), and warm-season grasses (switchgrass and giant miscanthus). Our sub-projects vary in size, from ongoing major breeding efforts in alfalfa to smaller projects that are the only coordinated breeding and improvement efforts for certain crops like birdsfoot trefoil. While numerous other forage crops are of importance, particularly in certain regions or specific niches, these crops represent major species of interest across broad regions of the continent. Therefore, we focus on these projects which require multi-location collaboration.

Furthermore, acknowledging that funding methods have changed over time, most of the collaborators, even those at state AES, do not receive funding for this regional research. Consequently, these projects are ones that complement existing research and can reasonably be tied with ongoing goals each collaborator has at their location. This also means that expensive objectives (e.g., those involving large-scale DNA sequencing or genomic selection) cannot be proposed within these research projects. However, by combining our programs, we can develop a framework to ask interesting questions about topics of broad interest, e.g., genotype ×environment interaction, that we can then use to attract external funding.