Project

HERBgrass: Optimizing productive herbal-rich grassland to drought resistance, pollination services and forage value.

Acronym
HERBgrass
Code
179Y6723
Duration
01 October 2023 → 30 September 2027
Funding
Regional and community funding: IWT/VLAIO
Research disciplines
  • Agricultural and food sciences
    • Sustainable agriculture
Keywords
herbal-rich grassland feed value pollinators
 
Project description

In conventional agriculture, only about 1% of grasslands consist of herbal-rich grasslands and still more than 75% are conventional uniform grasslands based on predominantly perennial ryegrass. Such grasslands are not well resilience against a changing climate with increasingly longer droughts in spring and summer. Due to increasing pressure from climate change with prolonged droughts, an increasingly stringent nitrogen policy, and the great potential for integrating more biodiversity into agriculture, interest is growing among farmers in herbal-rich grasslands partly due to the fact that herbal-rich grasslands can generate positive effects on feed value and animal health and in the context of IPPM (Integrated Pest and Pollination Management). The overall objective of the project is to make grassland exploitation more climate-robust, biodiverse and regenerative through significant expansion of herbal-rich grasslands. To this end, the project aims to build knowledge on (1) mixture selection, establishment and exploitation of herbal-rich grassland, (2) forage value of grass/clover/herbal mixture, (3) ensilability of grass/clover/herbal mixture and (4) quantification of the contribution of herbal-rich grassland to IPPM (i.e. promoting nutritious and pollinator species).