Registration of ‘Nanryo’ Tall Fescue

‘Nanryo’ tall fescue (Festuca arundinaceae Schreb.) (Reg. no. CV-96, PI 639920) was developed by the Kyushu Okinawa National Agricultural Research Station (KONARC), Kumamoto, Japan and is being jointly released by the Japanese Grassland Farming Forage Seed Association and the USDAARS, Grazinglands Research Laboratory, El Reno, OK USA. Nanryo is being registered in the USA as an endophyte free tall fescue cultivar that will be suitable for graze-plus-grain grazing systems in the Southern Plains where livestock are rotated in the early spring (mid-March in Oklahoma) from dual purpose wheat pasture to cool-season grass forage pasture (Redmon et al., 1995). Nanryo may be useful in blends with later maturing, endophyte free tall fescue cultivars to provide earlier grazing opportunities for livestock producers. Nanryo was first tested under the experimental designation number Kyushu No. 2 (Sato et al., 1985). The first Breeder seed of Nanryo was produced at Kumamoto, Japan, in 1992 from a breeder’s block composed of eight clones; two selected clones from the cultivars Fawn (Frakes and Cowan, 1974), Kentucky 31 (Fergus and Buckner, 1972); one selected clone from the cultivars Rozelle (Frame, Harkess and Hunt, 1974), Electa (an ecotype from the Netherlands), Krasnadorskaja (a local ecotype from the Krasnadorskaja region, Russia) and Yamanami (Kawabata et al., 1972). In 1972, 554 plants were selected from 11c082 single clones representing selections from the above six cultivars. In 1973, the 554 selected plants were clonally propagated and evaluated for 2 yr. In 1975, from these 554 clones, five superior clones were selected. In 1973, a second, independent selection process was initiated in which an additional 296 plants were selected from a second 3741 clone nursery representing the same six cultivars. In 1974, 296 plants were clonally propagated and evaluated for 2 yr. In 1975, three superior clones from this second selection process were selected. Seed generated from the five clones selected in the first selection/evaluation process were combined with seed from the three clones selected in the second selection/evaluation process. Selection was based on earliness, yield, vigor, disease resistance, heat resistance. All selections were performed in the nurseries of KONARC, Kumamoto, Japan. Nanryo has been evaluated in both Japan and USA (Oklahoma) forage performance trials. The Japanese 2002–2003 performance trials indicate Nanryo is superior to Bronson, Barcel, Barolex, TF-33 and Penngrazer and equivalent to Dovey, Southern Cross, Georgia 5 and MaxQ-Jessup. The 2000 Oklahoma forage performance trials indicate that total forage production of Nanryo was not competitive to Fawn, Maximize or Penngrazer. However, under extreme drought conditions of 2002 and 2003, spring and fall forage production of Nanryo was equivalent to Barcarella, Kentucky 31, Maximize, EA79 and Dovey in 2002 and competitive to Penngrazer and superior to Maximize and Fawn in 2003 (Kindiger et al., 2004). Early spring forage production yields obtained on 11 March 2005 at El Reno, OK, indicate that Nanryo and Dovey were similar in early forage production and superior to the early spring production of MaxQ-Jessup and Kentucky 31. Early spring near-infra-red reflectance spectroscopy estimates obtained on 11 March 2005 at El Reno, OK, provided crude protein, acid digestible fiber and neutral digestible fiber estimates of 24.39, 22.82, 40.93 for Nanryo; 21.41, 27.69, 49.18 for Dovey; 29.08, 20.35, 38.23 for MaxQ-Jessup; and 19.84, 25.87, 46.17 for Kentucky 31. Near-infra-red reflectance spectroscopy estimates obtained on 11 April 2005 provided crude protein, acid digestible fiber and neutral digestible fiber estimates of 17.25, 27.10, 45.69 for Nanryo and 22.46, 24.08 and 43.29 for MaxQ-Jessup. In Oklahoma, Nanryo is about 10 d later to flower than Dovey and 2-wk earlier than MaxQ-Jessup (Dovey heading 4/4/05; Nanryo heading 4/14/05; MaxQ-Jessup 4/28/05). The incidence of seed-borne endophytic fungi [Neotyphodium coenophialum (Morgan-Jones and Gams) Glenn, Bacon, and Hanlin] was tested and designated as free of the toxic endophyte in seed and tillers of Nanryo by the method of Koga et al. (1995). In disease trials conducted at the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science (NILGS), Tochigi, Japan, Nanryo has shown good resistance to crown rust (caused by Puccinia coronata Corda.) and net blotch (caused by Drechslera dictyoides f. sp. dictyoides Drechs.). In plant crown rust and net blotch disease trials conducted in 1987, 1988, and 1989 (0 5 none; 5 5 severe), Nanryo averaged scores of 1.0, 1.3 and 1.7 for crown rust and 1.9, 3.3 and 2.8 for net blotch. In the same test, Kentucky 31 generated scores of 3.3, 4.3, 4.0 for crown rust and 2.4, 5.0 and 4.3 for net blotch. In 1989, Nanryo was evaluated for head stem rust (caused by Puccinia graminis) (0 5 none; 5 5 severe) and was scored at 3.7. Nanryo is an early maturing, endophyte-free, mediumgreen, upright tall fescue that has shown good forage quality and production in trials in Japan and Oklahoma. It maintains summer density, persistence and tolerance to drought and heat induced stress that is equivalent to later maturing endophyte infected tall fescue cultivars. Breeder seed is maintained by KONARC and the National Agriculture and Bio-oriented Research Organization, Kumamoto, Japan (NARO). Nanryo is being released as a public non-protected cultivar. Limited samples of Certified seed for research purposes are available on request from the corresponding author in the USA or from the Japanese Grassland Agriculture and Forage Seed Association, Tokyo, Japan for the first 5 yr.