To meet the increasing demand for native grass species, it is important that Canadian developed sources of native grass seed be developed. As a partial solution to the shortage of native grass seed supply, a cooperative research arrangement has been set up between Ducks Unlimited and various public Canadian research institutions in Canada to develop varieties of native grass species. An ecovar is a type of forage variety which is different from the traditional forage varieties that we are familiar with. All of the forage grass varieties that we grow are synthetic varieties. The seed from these selected plants is increased for several generations and is released as a variety.
Synthetic varieties have a pedigree.
They can be traced back to a specific number of parental plants and these parental plants can be used to reconstitute the synthetic at any given time. The number of parents that make up a synthetic varies from as few as two or three plants to as many as a few hundred which is often the case with new alfalfa varieties. When developing a synthetic variety, the breeder starts with some sort of a source population. A source population refers to any number of things including another forage variety, a plant introduction etc. The main concern for the breeder is that the source population show variability for the traits, characteristics or genes that they are interested in and that they can select for these attributes.