Strategies to improve nitrogen use in forage crops

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Nitrogen (N) use efficiency is a major issue for agriculture across the world. We now have many molecular tools to address this important topic in new ways. Grass and legume forage crops are harvested when the leaf canopy is fully established and the dried material is an important protein source for animal feed. The challenge for the growers of forage crops is to maintain the protein production with decreased fertilizer inputs to meet new legislation requirements. Crop protein content depends on the plant receiving sufficient N until harvest. Leaf N is stored as vegetative storage protein a specialised type of cell vacuole. Excess N can also be stored as nitrate in the vacuole. In forage crops these N storage forms are important for both N use efficiency and the final feed value of the dried product. This research will investigate ways to optimise N fertilizer use and protein production in forage crops.Work with model plants has identified some marker genes for vegetative storage proteins, vacuole type and the crop N status that will be tested in these forage crops. These molecular markers will be tested in field samples collected under a range of different environments and management practices. The field sampling regimes can also include the screening of some natural compounds that can be applied to alter plant N storage pools. There is also an opportunity to use a new type of soil N sensor in these field experiments to check the influence of supply on N storage pools.