Pasture research in the UK: Present knowledge and future prospects

Abstract

Davies, A. 1998. Pasture research in the UK: present knowledge and future prospects. Can. J. Plant Sci. 78: 211-216. Pasture research in the UK has increasingly been aimed at understanding the mechanisms that underlie pasture plant responses to different managements. The need to develop agricultural systems that are both sustainable and economically viable has strengthened interest in reliable animal production from pasture and has emphasised the need to understand how white clover can best be maintained in the grazed sward. Breeders are focusing on meeting the nutritional requirements of the grazing animal and are enjoying increasing success in incorporating new genetic material from plant collections into varieties of grass and clover which are better able to withstand environmental stresses. Economic and environmental considerations have stimulated interest in gaining further insights into the nature of (and the reasons for) the species changes which follow reductions in fertiliser inputs and stocking rates. The possibility of harnessing the preferences of different grazing animals to influence vegetational change is being explored. Soil microbiology and nutrient availability in soils (and their influence on future productive capacity) are also influenced by reduced inputs and are subjects attracting increased interest. This paper discusses current understanding of these topics in the UK and identifies some specific problems that require further study.Key words: Clover, grass, grazing, pasture composition, plant breeding Davies, A. 1998. Recherches pastorales au Royaume-Uni : état actuel des connaissances et perspectives d'avenir. Can. J. Plant Sci. 78: 211-216. Les recherches pastorales au Royaume-Uni s'attachent de plus en plus à améliorer la compréhension des mécanismes sous-jacents du comportement des plantes de pâturage à l'égard des diverses modalités d'exploitation. Le besoin de mettre au point des systèmes culturaux à la fois durables et économiques et économiquement viable a eu pour effet de raffermir l'intérêt pour une production animale fiable au pâturage et d'accentuer entre autre la necessité de comprendre les moyens de garder le trèfle blanc dans le peuplement herbager. Les phytogénétistes s'appliquent à satisfaire les besoins nutritionnels de l'animal à l'herbe et ont enregistré des succès croissants dans l'introduction, dans les nouvelles variétés de graminées et de trèfle, de matériel génétique exogène qui les rend plus à même de résister aux stress environnementaux. Les considérations économiques et écologiques ont eu pour effet de stimuler l'intérêt pour une meilleure connaissance de la nature et des causes des changements de la composition botannique du pâturage, consécutifs aux apports d'engrais chimiques et aux divers taux de chargement animal. On examine les possibilités de mettre à profit les préférences de différentes espèces herbivores pour manipuler l'évolution du couvert prairial. La microbiologie du sol et l'assimilabilité des éléments nutritifs du sol ainsi que leur influence su...

Regrowth of White Clover after Chilling: Assimilate Partitioning and Vegetative Storage Proteins

“…We found three prominent polypeptides in white clover: one 17.3‐kDa polypeptide in stolons and roots, and two 15‐kDa polypeptides in roots which were recently identified in white clover as VSPs (Corre et al, 1996; Bouchart et al, 1998), because they are involved in N storage and mobilization during regrowth after defoliation (Corre et al, 1996) The 17.3‐kDa VSP is accumulated to a large extent during winter (Bouchart et al, 1998) In other species, it has been suggested that VSPs may play a role in cold acclimation and freezing tolerance (Cyr and Bewley, 1990) as they show a seasonal pattern of accumulation with a peak at the beginning of winter (Staswick, 1994) In our conditions, VSPs showed the same pattern during the experiment for both cultivars: an accumulation during the cold period followed by a large mobilization when temperatures increased (Table 4). However, both cultivars showed the same increase in the 17.3‐kDa VSP content of stolons despite a different cold hardening capacity.…”