The Importance of Testing Endophytes through the ETC
Published on 3 October 2024
New Zealand has pioneered endophyte technologies, giving farmers the ability to select ryegrasses that can control certain pasture pests while enhancing livestock performance.
Without these endophytes, many perennial ryegrass pastures in New Zealand would fail to persist.
To ensure that the novel endophytes offered to farmers have undergone rigorous testing and meet the claims made by breeders, the Endophyte Technical Committee (ETC) evaluates the trial information by the breeders to ensure the claims being made are correct. This sub-committee of the Plant Breeding and Research Association (PBRA) is made up of a group of competing proprietary seed companies plus research organisations such as AgResearch.
Given this, you can trust the data behind the specific insect and animal safety ratings for all endophytes approved by the PBRA.
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