ViaLactia's forage program is working towards pastures which meet the needs of the dairy farm throughout the year, now and into the future.

ViaLactia's forage program is part of Pastoral Genomics. Our primary targets are based on the environment's impact on pasture efficiency and nutritive value to the dairy cow. To achieve our research goals we have partnerships in a dozen or more countries working together with our in-house forage research scientists.

The basis for our research comes from our access to GeneThresher™ technology in an alliance with Orion Genomics. As a result, some New Zealand forages are among the most well-understood genomes in the world. This unprecedented resource is available to our in-house gene discovery programme and to selected partners.

Results from our gene discovery and bioinformatics programmes feed our functional genomics work. We have established platforms in rice, ryegrass, legume models and other plant species, a significant expression analysis system and several marker-assisted breeding programmes which are soon to be commercialised. In addition we work closely with on farm research organisations for product validation.

The forage team has also instigated an innovative rumen genomics research programme. The research is designed to characterise NZ dairy cow rumen flora over the dairying year and isolate novel enzymes from this extreme environment. We will utilise these enzymes and micro-organisms for the performance improvement of the NZ dairy cow in the pasture feeding scheme that is key to New Zealand's continued low cost position. The enzymes identified will also have applications in other industries.