Scoping Study on the Opportunities and Barriers of Improved Forages for Livestock Sustainability and Productivity (ForaGIN)

Forage crops are usually grown on-farm and eaten by animals during in-field grazing(e.g., grass, clover) or cut and fed in livestock housing (including as hay, silage).Forage crops provide substantial quantities of feed of high nutritional value at relativelylow production cost throughout the year. Climate change is creating new biotic andabiotic stresses Therefore future forage systems will need to provide more output withless input, have lower environmental footprints, including greenhouse gas emissions,and deliver more ecosystem services (biodiversity, pollinators, soil and water quality).This project brought together academics and industry to assess the potential ofimproved forages to enhance farm productivity, sustainability and resilience to meetthe future needs of ruminant agriculture in the UK. A rapid evidence assessmentapproach was used to compile a long list of forage species/groups that were potentiallysuitable for the UK. 19 common forage species already used regularly in the UK wereidentified as part of the long list. 29 niche species, including species that are part ofnative pastures, grown in game cover mixes or as cover crops, and 20 potential foragespecies not currently used as forage in the UK were also included in the long list. Ascoping map of the evidence available for feed value/nutritional characteristics,agronomy, and environmental impacts for the long-listed species, showed that moreevidence was available for the common forage species. Less evidence was availablefor environmental impacts than for feed potential and agronomy for all species.Mapping of the UK forage research and knowledge exchange landscape showed abroad stakeholder community including academics, breeders, seed merchants,agronomists, grassland consultants, nutrition advisors and veterinarians, farmingassociations and farmers. Stakeholder consultations together with a farmer surveyidentified increasing farmer interest in legume and herb species. The species ofinterest are generally common forage species, e.g., red clover, lucerne, sainfoin,chicory and plantain. However, there is also interest in alternative clovers, forage oatsand other niche species. Farmers identified a range of challenges to forage productionwith changing weather patterns identified as the main concern. Over 20% ofrespondents also felt they had a major challenge with: weed control in mixed swardsor with legumes; matching crops/varieties to the soil type and climate, or; establishinglegumes/herbs within existing swards.Forty stakeholders representing interests from across the research and knowledgeexchange landscape, scored the longlisted forage crops against productivity,resilience and environment criteria with reference to their potential to improve foragesystems compared to current systems (perennial ryegrass swards). By consideringscores for productivity, resilience and environment criteria, a shortlist of 12 crops wascreated. The shortlist included ribwort plantain, sainfoin, lucerne, annual clovers,chicory, festulolium, red clover, birdsfoot trefoil, other perennial clovers, vetch (tares),forage lupins and fodder beet. Perennial ryegrass and white clover were included asreference crops along with two other forage groups, forage trees and multispecies/herbal leys. Nine forage legume species were included in the shortlisthighlighting the opportunities to improve productivity, resilience and environmentalimpact by further integration of forage legumes into UK grassland systems. Anevidence synthesis approach was then used, where robust published reviews wereavailable, to compile narrative summaries for the shortlisted crops. This confirmed thefindings of the stakeholder analysis, indicating the potential of the shortlisted foragecrops to improve productivity, resilience and/or environmental impact in UK foragesystems. The value and robustness of stakeholder knowledge as part of rapidevidence appraisal approaches was also confirmed. Further stakeholder consultationprovided critical review, as well as adding further practical, experience-basedconsideration of the knowledge gaps and barriers to uptake for the shortlisted crops.Forage crops must be considered within the context of the livestock system(intensive/extensive, dairy, beef, sheep etc.). Distinct focuses for forage research,development and advice are likely to be needed for specialist dairy, lowland beef andsheep and for upland or extensive grazing systems. The forage crops in the shortlist,except fodder beet, are commonly grown as components of mixtures rather than assole crops. One key question that emerged was therefore how best to select andmanage these crops as optimum mixtures for any farm/soil/climate type.Key recommendations:• Opportunities arising from high throughput phenotyping approaches togetherwith genomic selection approaches are likely to support more rapid progress inbreeding of forage crops in the future to improve nutritional value, environmentaltolerances, disease resistances, persistence, and agronomic performance.• Integrated research (bringing together detailed crop and livestock sciencetogether with applied research and knowledge exchange) should be prioritisedwith a focus on sainfoin, red clover and lucerne, as well as for mixed species(herbal) leys, to support forage improvement for livestock sustainability andproductivity.• To deliver improvement in UK forage systems over the next decade, the focusshould be on knowledge exchange coupled with applied research to fill practicalknowledge gaps for the all the shortlisted crops.• Knowledge exchange should be delivered in partnership through existingnetworks and farming organisations and should couple peer-peer learning withdemonstration at farm-scale.• The lack of feed quality information for grazed and conserved crops ofunderutilised forages should be addressed.• The forage industry should explore the opportunity to bring together theirobservations and data to be collated, evaluated independently and shared morewidely. This would help address the lack of readily available information on thepractical integration of these forages within farming systems.