Timothy cultivars under climate change

The goal of the NeXTim project is to use genomics and machine learning approaches to predict the best timothy cultivars for a new Nordic climate in the face of climate change. 

Timothy is the most important forage crop in Norway. Breeding forage grasses is complicated and slow process, where It takes more than 20 years before a new variety will be available for sale. Genomic selection will produce new improved and robust timothy cultivars more rapidly, making grassland-based agriculture more sustainable, and improve the competitive ability of cultivars.

This is especially important for the farmers in the northern Norway, where winter damages are of increasing concern. NR will contribution be developing novel prediction models by implementing historical climate data, soil data, and phenotype data using advanced machine learning models for developing robust cultivars. 

NeXTim is a four-year research project funded by the Norwegian Research Council, in collaboration with Graminor AS, NMBU and NIBIO.