Feeding Systems with Legumes to Intensify Dairy Farms - cgiar

Brachiaria brizantha CIAT 26110: Cultivar Toledo
Pedro Argel 1, Jesús Gonzalez 2, and Marco Lobo 3
CIAT, Colombia (1), and ECAG (2) and MAG (3), Costa Rica
In October 2000, the Costa Rican Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock
Production (MAG, its Spanish acronym) released for farmers´ use the new
cultivar Toledo (Brachiaria brizantha CIAT 26110). This material was
officially released during a field day in which 250 farmers, professionals,
and seed producers of the region participated. Research that led to the
development of this new cultivar began in 1988 with the introduction of
experimental seed from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture
(CIAT) in Colombia. Research was coordinated by the Tropileche
Consortium in Costa Rica, with the participation of MAG, the Escuela
Centroamericana de Ganadería (ECAG), the Tropical Center for Agricultural
Research and Training (CATIE, its Spanish acronym), the University of Costa
Rica, and CIAT.
Origin and Morphology
The accession Brachiaria brizantha CIAT 26110 was collected in
Burundi, on 15 May 1985 by G Keller-Grein of CIAT in collaboration with
technicians from the Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Burundi
(ISABU). The collection site was at 2º53' S and 26º20' W, at 1,510 masl, and
an average annual rainfall of 1,710 mm. The site was located between on
Km 36 between Bubanza and Bukinanyama in the State of Cibitoke. In
October of the same year, this accession was registered as CIAT 26110 in
the germplasm bank held at CIAT. The accession was introduced into Costa
Rica in 1988 for evaluation with other Brachiaria species at Los Diamantes
experiment station in Guápiles, according to the cooperative agreement
between MAG, CATIE, ECAG, and CIAT´s former Tropical Forages Program.
Cultivar Toledo was derived directly from the B. brizantha accession
CIAT 26110. It is a perennial grass that develops in form of tillers, and can
grow as high as 1.6 m. It produces vigorous stalks that root at the nodes if
these should come into close contact with the soil through, for example,
trampling by animals or mechanical compaction, thus favoring soil cover
and lateral displacement of the grass. Leaves are lanceolate, with little
pubescence, and can be 60 cm long and 2.5 cm wide. The inflorescence is a
panicle, 40 to 50 cm long. It usually carries four racemes, ranging from 8 to
12 cm in length and each carrying a single row of spikelets. One stalk can
produce several inflorescences, each growing from a different node, although
the largest is always at the terminal.
155