Barenbrug/AFBI
Germinal Ireland has a longstanding relationship with Barenbrug UK. As the agents for Barenbrug varieties in the Republic of Ireland, we have taken another step towards ensuring the highest quality product is made available to Irish farmers.
Barenbrug has been developing cultivars at research stations in different climatic zones for more than 50 years. Barenbrug now has a decentralised research operation in many different countries on five continents; guaranteeing better testing and selection, offering innovation and well-adapted cultivars and species in each climatic area.
The AFBI Grass Breeding programme
In Ireland, Barenbrug is the commercial partner to the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) grass breeding programme based at Loughgall, Co. Armagh. Advances in grass breeding research are delivering new varieties with improved yield and nutritional quality to the market.
The AFBI Grass Breeding programme is extensive, with over 10 hectares of grass trials in 3,000 plots. In addition, further testing of new varieties and breeding lines is carried out by commercial partner Barenbrug on sites across the UK and continental Europe and also on Irish farms.
The genetic material used by AFBI is of diverse backgrounds, making use of winter-active material from New Zealand, winter-hardy varieties from Eastern Europe and disease-resistant lines from France.
Furthermore, all AFBI varieties are currently evaluated under grazing conditions, to ensure that varieties are sufficiently persistent, palatable and suitable for use under grazing conditions throughout Ireland.
Through the breeding programme in AFBI and our partnership with Barenbrug, Germinal has brought some outstanding varieties to the Irish market, including Drumbo, Tyrella, Seagoe, Dunluce, Clanrye, Navan and Ballintoy.
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