Developing Supply Chain Capacity in Pastures

Summary

This project was aimed to propose methodologies and tools to develop supply chain capacity in pasture genetics. Specifically, the development of a manual of definitions of genetic terms that may be used to promote or describe new cultivars, the development of teaching tools for pasture plant genetics at undergraduate level and a review of the teaching of pasture plant breeding at undergraduate level.
The project involved consultation with a broad range of seed companies (PGGWrightson, NZ Agriseeds, Heritage Seeds, VicSeeds, Seed Disitributors, Stephen Pasture Seeds, Seed Force, VicSeeds and Valley Seeds) and universities (University of Melbourne, University of Adelaide, University of Western Australia, University of Queensland, University of Sydney).
There was generalised agreement among seed companies that a set of generalised terms and definitions would be of value to industry and ideally that these would be standardised and promoted by a forum such as the Australian Seeds Federation and be made available in a way that could be appended to company specific marketing information. A draft manual has been developed as part of this project along with example decision trees illustrating where and why the terms would be used when describing cultivars and during the choice of cultivars by producers.
There is no longer an active initiative to develop a uniform plant breeding curriculum at Australian universities and the majority of lectures (and lecturers) focus on the breeding of grains crops with little emphasis on pasture plant breeding (particular the breeding of cross pollinated plants) or on the integration of quantitative genetics into plant breeding courses. There are some exceptions to this general situation such as the teaching of quantitative genetics in plant breeding at the University of Queensland. There is also little integration of plant and animal genetics at advanced levels with these tending to be taught as stand-alone subjects or streams. The opportunity exists for MLA to influence this situation through the sponsoring of post-graduate student programs in quantitative genetics and plant breeding that bring together co-supervisors from plant and animal genetics.
One integrating initiative across universities was the “Plant Breeding by Example” project sponsored by the Australian government. In this project, led by the University of Adelaide, a set of teaching tools were scheduled for development that would be used to highlight plant breeding principles in a practical context. In this project two units were developed that were focussed on pasture plant breeding; “Using Estimated Breeding Values in Plant Breeding.” and “Breeding Wind Pollinated Grasses.”. These examples have already been used in teaching at the University of Adelaide and will be used at the University of Melbourne in October, with the tools made available to all other universities with plant breeding subjects.