Category: Livestock

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In memory of Rainer Schultze-Kraft

Reproduced from Tropical Grasslands-Forrajes Tropicales with permission.

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Rainer Schultze-Kraft, a friend, colleague and mentor, whose experience and in depth understanding of tropical forages made him an outstanding forage scientist. Rainer dedicated his career to tropical forage research and development, working at CIAT and University of Hohenheim. He was an avid germplasm collector and added almost 10,000 forage accessions to global collections. He was one of the original team to work on the tropical forages interactive selection tool to support use of forages and one of the founders of the journal, acting as managing editor and guiding the journal through the early years. His passing leaves a big gap in the tropical forages community that will be hard to fill and he will be sorely missed by his friends and colleagues.

There is also an obituary on the website of the Alliance of Bioversity & CIAT.

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Nibbles: USDA germplasm plan, Millet CoP, Seed system resources, Kenyan sorghum Scottish crab apples, Heirloom maize, Yak cheese, Indian mangoes

  1. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a new National Strategic Germplasm and Cultivar Collection Assessment and Utilization Plan. Quite the tour de force. Now to get it funded.
  2. Yes, there’s now a community of practice on millets. Joined!
  3. The Seed System Lab at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences has lots of interesting resources on its new website.
  4. The latest on the Kenyan genebank’s sorghum work.
  5. Why wouldn’t Scotland have a crab apple genebank?
  6. Why Jimmy Red maize is worth saving, despite its faults.
  7. Yak cheese? Yes, please.
  8. And nice pics of Indian mangoes to close.
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Nibbles: Heirloom mixology, Renaissance breeding, Heirloom watermelon, Heirloom apples, British horses, Ancient grapes & wine, Potato cryo, Arboretum, Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Rice breeding

  1. A self-described seed mixologist calls for a science fiction, rather than historical, approach to growing heirloom varieties. Excellent reading.
  2. The Renaissance approach to genetic mixology explained in a new book The Perfection of Nature.
  3. Sometimes, though, you just want a good old watermelon.
  4. Or a good old apple.
  5. Or indeed ‘the Swiss army knife of equines.’
  6. Or you want to know what ancient people ate and drank.
  7. So it’s a good thing we have genebanks, genebanks, genebanks…
  8. Including for rice.
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Brainfood: Silvopastoral systems, Livestock sustainability, Brachiaria in Brazil, European haymaking, German Black Pied cattle, Mallards, Pollinators, Metabarcoding

  1. Global meta-analysis reveals overall benefits of silvopastoral systems for biodiversity. They’re not bad on their own, but the best thing for biodiversity would be to integrate silvopastoral systems with protected areas.
  2. Priority areas for investment in more sustainable and climate-resilient livestock systems. India, Brazil, China, Pakistan and Sudan, apparently.
  3. Farming cattle in the tropics: Transnational science and industrializing pastures in Brazil. But would investment in Brachiaria-based silvopastoral systems in Brazil be a good thing? I guess it depends.
  4. Country Perspectives on Hay-Making Landscapes as Part of the European Agricultural Heritage. No Brachiaria in sight.
  5. Genomic diversity and relationship analyses of endangered German Black Pied cattle (DSN) to 68 other taurine breeds based on whole-genome sequencing. It has a small population, but this ancestor of the Holstein is still pretty diverse. No word on whether it likes Brachiaria.
  6. The meaning of wild: Genetic and adaptive consequences from large-scale releases of domestic mallards. “Wild is not singular.” Let that sink in while you contemplate your mallard-based silvopastoral system.
  7. Key tropical crops at risk from pollinator loss due to climate change and land use. I’m sure the right silvopastoral systems would be great for pollinators.
  8. eDNA metabarcoding of avocado flowers: ‘Hass’ it got potential to survey arthropods in food production systems? Yes it does. So now we can monitor the performance of those silvopastoral systems pretty easily.