Change in Agronomic Performance of Lolium perenne and Lolium multiflorum Varieties in the Past 40 Years Based on Data from Belgian VCU Trials

Quantitative Traits Breeding for Multifunctional Grasslands and Turf

“…Several studies have analysed the progress in Lolium breeding over the past decades (Sampoux et al 2011 ;Chaves et al 2009 ). Improvements in total dry matter yield (DMY) and in disease resistance were 3 and 11 % per decade, respectively, and aftermath heading has been greatly reduced.…”

What Global and/or European Agriculture Will Need from Grasslands and Grassland Breeding over the Next 10–15 Years for a Sustainable Agriculture

“…4. Questioning if we really can increase the growth of perennial grasses, in particular by altering their growth strategy, Parsons et al (2011) "speculate with credible evidence that our perennial grasses are holding back and not growing to the limits of their resource supply" since they have to combine good annual growth with the storage of reserves to guarantee persistence.Yet Chaves et al (2009) demonstrated that progress over the last 40 years in dry matter yield and persistence (sic) in the short living Lolium multiflorum was very comparable to the perennial Lolium perenne. For crown rust resistance, progress was even better in Lolium perenne than in Lolium mulitiflorum.…”

“…Given the intrinsic higher yield potential of early heading varieties, the attention for early varieties may increase in zero grazing systems, provided their persistence is high. According to Chaves et al (2009) progress in the early varieties of Lolium perenne L. (perennial ryegrass) was lower than in the intermediate and late heading varieties offering opportunities for breeding, with a special emphasis on good quality. Good quality usually is very closely connected with leafiness.…”

Evidence for Heterosis in Italian Ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) Based on Inbreeding Depression in F2 Generation Offspring from Biparental Crosses

“…Forage productivity traits such as yield, quality, and persistence have been the core targets of modern ryegrass breeding [1]. Improvements have been made in yield, digestibility, water soluble carbohydrate content for perennial, and Italian ryegrasses [2,3]. However, the magnitude of genetic gains made for dry matter production have been small relative to gains in cereal crops [4,5].…”

“…Nonetheless, slightly lower levels of heterosis (up to 13% for yield) were observed in diallele crosses between eight distinct populations with distant geographic origins in Europe [16]. Considering the low levels of genetic gain that have been characteristic of ryegrass breeding programs based on individual or family-based phenotypic selection [2,3,5], access to even modest levels of heterosis would prove valuable for ryegrass improvement.…”