Mangere to mainstream – the story of a perennial ryegrass ecotype, a determined farmer, and a progressive seed company

ABSTRACT

Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) remains the predominant grazed grass in New Zealand’s pastoral agriculture. Brought in from Europe in the early nineteenth century, locally adapted populations or ecotypes developed in a number of regions. Government plant breeders, employed to provide elite cultivars for farmer use as a public good, exploited an ecotype from the Hawke’s Bay region to produce ‘Grasslands Ruanui’. In the1950s Trevor Ellett, a dairy farmer in Mangere, Auckland noted that Grasslands Ruanui did not persist as well as ryegrass sown with seed harvested from 40 to 60 year old paddocks on his own farm. This ecotype, referred to as Mangere ryegrass, has since become the basis of many ryegrass cultivars bred by both government and commercial plant breeders over the past 50 years. This review documents how Mangere ryegrass became an important part of ryegrass cultivar development, the part it played in commercial plant breeders becoming involved in cultivar development, and coincidently in the discovery that the Epichloë fungal endophyte is crucial for perennial ryegrass persistence under drought, heat and insect pressure.

KEYWORDS:

• Epichloë
• persistence
• plant breeding
• plant variety rights
• seed certification

Introduction

Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.), a temperate festucoid grass extensively used in New Zealand, has been shown to be the most widely sown pasture species in New Zealand from an economic perspective (Duder et al. 2005; Nixon 2016). It was first introduced into the country from Europe, principally from the United Kingdom during the first half of the nineteenth Century. Plant breeding and germplasm development of perennial ryegrass in New Zealand began in the 1930s by making selections from, and crosses with, naturalised ecotypes (Stewart 2006). At that time all breeding was undertaken as a public good by the government’s Department of Science and Industrial Research (DSIR), Grassland Division set up in the 1920s to support the industry. The importance of ecotypes of perennial ryegrass in New Zealand was demonstrated by Levy and Davies (1929, 1930) and Levy (1932), who showed that commercially sold perennial ryegrass seed harvested from permanent grazed grassland areas in the North Island, particularly Hawke’s Bay and Poverty Bay, were more persistent compared to seed from arable farming areas in the South Island.

Two perennial ryegrass ecotypes have made major impacts. The first described by Levy and Davies (1930) from the Hawke’s Bay which by the early 2000s has been used in the breeding of least 18 ryegrass cultivars (including ‘Grasslands Ruanui’); and the second, identified by Trevor Ellett, a dairy farmer from Mangere, Auckland has contributed to at least 20 ryegrass cultivars (Stewart 2006). The purpose of this review is to document the discovery, research and trialling, the process of commercialisation, seed certification and the introduction of Plant Variety Rights (PVR), and the impact of this Mangere ryegrass ecotype in New Zealand ryegrass breeding and development.

Identification of the Mangere ryegrass ecotype – claims from a graduate farmer

Around 1950 Trevor Ellett was left part of the farm at Mangere, South Auckland by his father (Ernest George Ellett). This included the stony Ihumātao block with the scoria mountain which later became a valuable quarry. This farm had been in the Ellett family since the mid-1860s, and records indicate, James Ellett (Trevor Ellett’s grandfather) arrived in New Zealand about 1860, and in 1864 bought 258 acres in the Mangere district from local Māori (Victoria University of Wellington 2016). The area called Ihumātao by local Māori, translates as ‘cold nose’ (NZ History 2021), referring to the cold winter winds that blow through the Manuka Heads onto the Ihumātao Peninsula. The farm also includes Ellett's Mountain (Maungataketake) (Figure 1) which is believed to have erupted about 80,000 years ago. Some of the farms botanic history was recorded by Corkill et al. (1981). ‘In the early years, crops of wheat were grown and the areas resown with ‘English’ grasses. From the turn of the nineteenth century until about seventy years ago, no further cultivation and resowing of grass seed had taken place. Stocking has been either with dairy cattle or dry stock under a lax grazing system with opportunity for reseeding’. For 30 years Trevor developed the home farm in Mangere supplying the local dairy factory with town milk on a daily quota basis (Ellett 1973). In 1990 he bought and transferred the milk quota to a 150 ha sheep farm at Karaka in South Auckland.

Figure 1. Ellett's Mountain (Maungataketake) and Mangere Aerodrome, Auckland, 1962 (now Auckland International Airport). Boundaries of Trevor Ellett's farm indicated by bold black lines. Aerial photograph taken by Whites Aviation Ltd: Photographs. Ref: WA-58388-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23157965.

The land consisted of shallow stony volcanic basaltic soils which during summer can be hot and dry. The mean annual rainfall is 1200 mm, usually with low unreliable summer precipitation and high evapotranspiration leading to severe summer moisture deficits (Corkill et al. 1981). By the time Trevor Ellett came to manage the property the area was also subject to the introduced pest Argentine stem weevil (Listronotus bonariensis) (May 1961). Under these conditions natural selection of sown perennial ryegrass over decades, probably at least 60 years (Cumberland and Honore 1970; Lancashire et al. 1978), led to the development of a distinctive local population or ecotype.

Trevor Ellett the academic and farmer (1920–2016)

Trevor began studying at Massey Agricultural College (now Massey University) in 1939/40. While this was interrupted by the Second World War, he returned to Massey in 1945, having been awarded the Returned Servicemen’s Senior Scholarship, graduated with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science, then became a lecturer in the Dairy Husbandry Department (Figure 2). During this time he built a working relationship with the government plant breeders at DSIR Grasslands, located across the road from the University. After leaving the Massey University lectureship he continued to make a significant contribution to dairy farming and related research, advisory services and to the dairy industry over the next 40 years.

Figure 2. Trevor Ellett while on the teaching staff of Massey Agricultural College's dairy team, photographed around 1947. https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/85752945/ryegrass-pioneer-and-massey-patron-dies

A biography of Trevor Ellett is available on the New Zealand Grassland Trust section of the New Zealand Grassland Association (NZGA) website (https://www.grassland.org.nz/nzgt.php – refer to Chapters 3 and 6). Trevor was an Honorary Life Member of the NZ Grassland Association (NZGA), awarded to him in 1995 at the annual conference held that year at Mangere. He was awarded the Ray Brougham Trophy by the New Zealand Grassland Trust in 1996, in recognition of his great contribution to New Zealand livestock farming (Figure 3). Trevor was also a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Science. Trevor’s status amongst fellow farmers was such that at the 1985 Annual NZGA Conference in Whangarei local farmers honoured him for his role in the development of ‘Ellett’ ryegrass, the first New Zealand privately selected pasture selection. Until then only government or university based breeders had been allowed or expected to release cultivars.

Figure 3. Trevor Ellett the farmer (taken with permission from New Zealand Grassland Trust section of the New Zealand Grassland Association (NZGA) website (2023).

Moving to farming at Mangere in 1951, Trevor sowed the latest Government-bred and certified pasture seed mix: New Zealand Number 1 perennial ryegrass (later called ‘Grasslands Ruanui’), H1 short rotation ryegrass (later called ‘Grasslands Manawa’), pedigree white clover (later called ‘Grasslands Huia’) plus broad red clover (later called ‘Grasslands Hamua’). Over three successive years pastures based on different mixtures of these failed to persist, and he decided to harvest ryegrass seed from his best paddock and sow that instead.

While hand harvesting seed at Mangere had its challenges, Trevor’s tenacity to succeed meant initially using a home-made flail to separate seed from the straw, and after a couple of years, a locally owned standing threshing machine was co-opted to do this. Visual comparisons between the sowings of New Zealand certified perennial ryegrass/H1 mixture seed Trevor harvested and called ‘Mangere’ ryegrass, showed the Mangere ryegrass to have much better growth and persistence. Trevor thought this was due to his ryegrass having adapted to be more drought and heat tolerant, since the soils in the area were of volcanic origin (ash and scoria) and dried out in summer.

In the early 1970s, Trevor sent plants to Ken Mitchell of the DSIR Plant Physiology Division in Palmerston North where in their newly established climate-controlled growth rooms he demonstrated that Mangere ryegrass was more heat stress tolerant than the other ryegrasses tested. While this work has not been published, a study in 2012 comparing 14 international diploid cultivars records that ‘Grasslands Samson’ (derived largely from Mangere ryegrass (Stewart 2006)) was the most heat-tolerant diploid by a significant margin (Soliman et al. 2012). Through his connections with DSIR Grasslands Director Lionel Corkill, the Mangere ecotype become part of the DSIR breeding programme in 1962, which eventually led to the development of ‘Grasslands Nui’. The two cultivars ‘Grasslands Nui’ and Mangere ryegrass were regularly compared in multiple trials and farmer paddock sowings with both performing and persisting better than ‘Grasslands Ruanui’.

In 1973, the latest and best ryegrass breeding lines from DSIR Grasslands were sown on Trevor Ellett’s farm. After they departed, unbeknown to the DSIR breeders, Trevor also sowed an adjacent area with seed collected from his farm. After a year the Mangere ecotype grass was persisting, but the new DSIR bred cultivars were not (which we now know was due to their seed having lost the Epichloë fungal endophyte during storage).

Trevor Ellett considered that the DSIR Grasslands had ‘stuffed up’ the breeding of the new ‘Nui’ ryegrass, and looked for another way farmers could benefit from what he believed was his superior Mangere ryegrass. In 1972, he first approached Ross Duder, whom he knew though the local Department of Agriculture Farm Advisory Division and the National Institute of Agricultural Science. Ross was then employed as an agronomist with Arthur Yates and Company Ltd. Jack Yates was a director and the cousin of Philip Yates, who was the head of this private Auckland based horticultural and home garden seed company (Barry Whelan pers. comm.; Davis 2012; Yates 2021). Philip and the company were actively seeking to diversify into the agricultural cereal and forage seed market.

Agreement between farmer and seed company

When Trevor Ellett approached Arthur Yates and Company Ltd in 1972 to commercialise Mangere ryegrass, terms and conditions were negotiated (Barry Whelan pers. comm.) which included that Arthur Yates and Company Ltd would:

1. Have exclusive rights to harvest and multiply seed of the Mangere ryegrass ecotype to be called Yates Mangere ryegrass,

2. Pay a royalty on each kilogram of retail seed sold of Mangere ryegrass seed or cultivars derived from it, with this deposited into a Trust;

3. Ensure all promotional material associated with marketing of the product to be approved by Trevor Ellett;

4. Investigate the introduction of a certification scheme for Mangere ryegrass; and

5. Undertake a selection and breeding programme using the Mangere ryegrass ecotype germplasm.

Trevor Ellett agreed to make available paddocks on his farm for seed production from which Arthur Yates and Company Ltd could source stock seed.

The first paddocks were closed-up in spring 1973, under the direction of Yates agronomist Ross Duder and watchful eye of Trevor with the first seed being machine harvested in late December 1973 and early January 1974. Field-dressed seed was sent to Williams and Kettle Ltd, Hastings for machine dressing. This mother or stock seed was multiplied under strict quarantine and isolation conditions on the Hawke’s Bay Harbour Board farm. This provided 25 T of machine dressed seed of which 22.5 T was allocated for sale through nine agricultural representatives. The dairy sector was Yates primary target for marketing Mangere ryegrass seed. Commercial seed production was initially, and continued to be, contracted out to Williams and Kettle Ltd in Hawke’s Bay, using paddocks previously cropped to ensure no contaminating ryegrass.

In 1980, Mangere ryegrass was renamed as ‘Ellett’ ryegrass, with the permission of Trevor Ellett (Charlton and Stewart 1999), and was accepted into, and became grown, under the New Zealand seed certification scheme, and its rules regarding genetic and physical purity. At this time the Epichloë fungal endophyte, crucial for ryegrass persistence in regions with combinations of drought and high pest pressures (Easton 1999; Hewitt et al 2021), was not well understood. ‘Ellett’ ryegrass seed was in high demand, so was harvested and sold with little carryover between seasons, and in doing so inadvertently the endophyte level in seed remained high.

In 1985, Equiticorp International PLC, a recently established investment bank, took control of Arthur Yates and Company Ltd via a share market raid. However, just before Equiticorp failed and was liquidated in 1987 (Financial Review 1989) the Yates research station located at Courtenay, Canterbury and the associated ryegrass breeding programme was purchased by New Zealand Agriseeds Ltd, a small group of Yates staff who were in the process of being made redundant (Davis 2012; Rural Delivery 2014). As part of this purchase ‘Ellett’ became part of the NZ Agriseeds Ltd ryegrass portfolio, and the name ‘Ellett’ a registered trademark of T. R. Trevor Ellett’s Research Trust.

Trevor Ellett was tenacious, commercially focused and wanted the best available ryegrass germplasm offered for wide use by other farmers, but he sought no personal commercial gain. Royalty returns from sales of Mangere ryegrass seed, and some later cultivars derived from it were invested into a Charitable Trust established in 1979, which in 1996 became the T. R. Ellett Agricultural Research Trust, 20 years before Trevor’s death in 2016. The trust deed was established to promote and encourage further education, study, investigation, and research for the benefit of the agricultural industry in New Zealand. Trevor was particularly keen to help promising students who were completing Masters and PhD degrees on pasture-based topics, this being an important part of their developing scientific careers. Various research projects have also been supported with in excess of 130 awards made since 1979. The Trust continues as a fitting legacy to Trevor’s philanthropy towards the New Zealand agricultural industry (Errol Thom pers. comm.).

Early cultivar development from the Mangere ryegrass ecotype

The Mangere ecotype was distinct from the Hawke’s Bay ecotype from which ‘Grasslands Ruanui’ was selected. As recorded by Corkill et al. (1981) ‘it is more erect with larger leaves and tillers, has higher winter production, is more resistant to summer drought, and responds more rapidly and vigorously to autumn rains. Lax grazing would favour its erect and bulky growth form, the mild winter its winter growth and rapid autumn recovery, and the light soil and dry summers its resistance to drought’. Morphological characteristics of Mangere ecotype suggests introgression from L. multiflorum, which is supported by it having a 5–8% seedling fluorescence level in its seed certification description. This is consistent with a derivation from old ‘colonial’ pastures based on mixtures of perennial and Italian ryegrasses (Stewart 2006). It became the basis of several new cultivars (Easton 1983; Stewart 2006), questioning the contention that only the very dense, fine leaved perennial ryegrass of the Hawke’s Bay type is reliably persistent (Burgess and Easton 1986).

‘Grasslands Nui’

Mangere ecotype cuttings were collected from one 40 year old Mangere ryegrass paddock and sent to DSIR Grasslands in 1962, planted out in a spaced plant nursery of 1000 plants and evaluated for productivity and resistance to rust (Puccinia coronata Corda). Nine genotypes with exceptional persistence under dry conditions were selected and inter-crossed in 1964 as the basis of a synthetic variety, G4711 which became ‘Grasslands Nui’, released and first certified by the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in 1975 (Armstrong 1977). The ability of ‘Grasslands Nui’ to persist through dry summer conditions was confirmed by Ritchie (1975), who also observed in several trials (in Northland, Waikato, and Manawatū) that ‘Grasslands Nui’ gave earlier and more reliable autumn production than ‘Grasslands Ruanui’ or ‘Grasslands Ariki’.

First certified in 1975 (Chapman et al. 1987) ‘Grasslands Nui’ is still eligible for certification and is maintained by Grasslanz Technology Ltd for supply to seed producers in New Zealand. Most seed from ‘Grasslands Nui’ is exported with a low percentage of seed infected with endophyte.

Cultivar ‘Ellett’

Sold from 1975 to 1979 as Mangere ryegrass, it was renamed and first certified as ‘Ellett’ ryegrass in 1980 (Chapman et al. 1987; Bahmani 1999). Over a period of 12 years ‘Ellett’ ryegrass was sold throughout both the North and South Islands, but is now no longer commercially available.

Cultivar ‘Yatsyn 1’

As Mangere ryegrass started to be commercialised, Arthur Yates and Company Ltd set up a perennial ryegrass breeding programme. Lionel Corkill, ex Director of DSIR Grasslands, acted as a consultant in setting this up. Breeding began in 1973 with an evaluation of 4500 spaced plants taken from eight paddock location on the Mangere farm by Ross Duder and grown on the Arthur Yates trial area on Trevor’s farm at Mangere (Duder 1976). The best performing 150 plants were selected in autumn 1975, divided into 20 clones, planted out and polycrossed. Seed was harvested, and a progeny test undertaken of the 150 half-sibs in replicated rows on a dryland sheep farm at Glenbrook managed under conventional sheep rotational grazing for several years (Ross Duder pers. comm.). Plants were scored for establishment, plant type, production, rust, and flowering date. Based on this the best 10–15 parent plants were crossed in several ways to create five new synthetics. These were tested in replicated yield trials, with the best line a four parent synthetic (Guthridge et al. 2001) called ‘Yatsyn 1’. The cultivar name came from an internal computer code of the time, ‘Yat’ standing for Yates, ‘syn’ for synthetic. ‘Yatsyn 1’ was granted Plant Variety Rights in 1985 (expired 29 October 2005) (New Zealand Intellectual Property Office A), and commercially launched by NZ Agriseeds Ltd in autumn 1988 (Davis 2012). ‘Yatsyn 1’ is no longer commercially available.

During the commercialisation of Mangere ryegrass Arthur Yates and Company Ltd took the initiative to establish a research station at Courtenay, near Darfield, Canterbury for the Yates Group in 1978. The breeding of ‘Yatsyn 1’ was completed at Courtenay during the early 1980s. It has been estimated that ‘Ellett’ and ‘Yatsyn 1’ ryegrass made up 90% of the proprietary dairy pasture seed market in New Zealand (Davis 2012). The excellent performance of ‘Yatsyn 1’ in dairy pastures has been documented (Hainsworth et al. 1991).

Key people involved with the breeding, product development, sales and marketing of ‘Ellett’ and ‘Yatsyn 1’ were Jack Yates (Head of the Agricultural Division), Barry Whelan (Agricultural Seed Sales and Marketing Manager), Dick Cochrane (Seed Production Manager), Selwyn Manning (Research Manager), Ross Duder (National Extension Agronomist and Plant Breeder), and Nick Cameron (Plant Breeder).

Other cultivars

Mangere ryegrass germplasm has been used in the direct breeding of ‘Bronsyn’, ‘Vedette’, ‘Dobson’, ‘Ceres Cannon’ and ‘Nevis’ (tetraploid) ryegrasses in the 1990s, and ‘Extreme’ and ‘Banquet’ (tetraploid) ryegrasses in the 2000s (Stewart 2006). Several other ryegrass cultivars including ‘Alto’, ‘Arrow’, ‘Endeavour’, ‘Embassy’, ‘Grasslands Samson’, ‘Ceres Kingston’, ‘Matrix’, ‘Meridian’, ‘Revolution’, ‘Rohan’, ‘Tyson’ and ‘Ceres Horizon’ (tetraploid) have been bred from crosses between Mangere ryegrass and other ecotypes (Stewart 2006). Many more cultivars have been developed since then which are partly based upon this material.

Comparisons between Mangere ryegrass derived cultivars and ‘Grasslands Ruanui’ ryegrasses

Mangere ryegrass ecotype was compared in many trials in the 1960s and 1970s, with ‘Grasslands Nui’, and ‘Grasslands Ruanui’ the predominant ryegrass cultivars of the time by MAF, DSIR Grasslands, University, and private researchers. Up until 1955 ‘Grasslands Ruanui’ was continually reselected and altered many times from ryegrass populations collected from Hawke’s Bay and Poverty Bay (Corkill pers. comm.). It was first certified in 1936 as ‘New Zealand Perennial’ (Corkill et al. 1981; Chapman et al. 1987).

It was noted in a review of 40 trials across New Zealand before 1980 that ‘Grasslands Nui’ could provide an annual yield increase of 25% over ‘Grasslands Ruanui’ (Goold 1982a). Superiority of ‘Grasslands Nui’ and ‘Ellett’ in the Waikato was largely achieved through greater production in the autumn months (Goold 1982b). On Waikato peat soils and Central Plateau pumice soils ‘Ellett’ was considered superior in terms of persistence compared to Grasslands Nui (Goold 1982b; Pervical and Duder 1983), likely due to differences in Epichloë endophyte levels in the seed of the two cultivars.

During the late 1950s several trials were run to investigate the lack of ryegrass persistence in newly sown pastures (Bascand 1963; Goold 1966). These included NZ Certified perennial ryegrass (which became ‘Grasslands Ruanui’) and Mangere ryegrass, seed of which was collected from the Ellett farm and other long-established ryegrass paddocks in the area. Further trials were undertaken in Masterton, Wairarapa (Rumball 1969), Flatbush, Auckland (Cumberland and Honore 1970), Waimate, South Canterbury (McLeod 1973), Kaikohe, Northland, Palmerston North, Manawatū (Lancashire et al. 1978), Tihoi, northwest Taupo (Brown 1980; Percival and Duder 1983), Winchmore, Mid-Canterbury (Hayman 1980), Rukuhia, Waikato (Goold 1982a), and Hamilton, Waikato (Bahmani 1999) with results summarised in Table 1. However, in most cases unknown and variable Epichloë endophyte levels almost certainly confounded results. For example, retrospective examination of seed indicated maximum Epichloë endophyte levels were 15, 40, and 100% for ‘Grasslands Ruanui’, ‘Grasslands Nui’ and ‘Ellett’, respectively. This in hindsight may have explained the difference in cultivar performance due to the presence of Argentine stem weevil and other insects like African Black Beetle (Heteronychus arator), particularly during autumn when Argentine stem weevil activity is greatest (May 1961; Barker et al. 1984). Perhaps the first published account showing the confounding effects of endophyte on ryegrass cultivar performance compared low endophyte ‘Grasslands Ruanui’, high and low endophyte seed lines of ‘Grasslands Nui’ with high endophyte seed lines of ‘Ellett’ and ‘Yatsyn 1’ in several summer dry sites in the early 1980s (Mortimer and Di Menna 1983; Kerr 1987). Variability of endophyte levels among seed lines of commercial cultivars had been previously documented (Scott 1983). The conclusion was that low levels of endophyte in ‘Grasslands Ruanui’ and ‘Grasslands Nui’ was associated with poor persistence, compared with the high endophyte lines of ‘Grasslands Nui’, ‘Ellett’ and ‘Yatsyn 1’. More detailed comparisons between Epichloë endophyte free ‘Ellett’ and ‘Grasslands Ruanui’ both in the field and growth room experiments can be found in Bahmani et al. 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003.

Table 1. Summary of trials comparing Mangere ryegrass ecotype (or ‘Ellett’) and ‘Grasslands Nui’ relative to ‘Grasslands Ruanui’ (=100) for yield or growth score.

Trial location	Trial description	Mangere relative yield or growth score (%)	‘Grasslands Nui’ relative yield or growth score (%)	Reference
Masterton, Wairarapa	Spaced plant trial; grazed; scored after first summer	285	Not included	Rumball 1969
Flatbush, Auckland	Two paddock sized areas for each cultivar; sown with clover; pasture cages over 3 years; Mangere ryegrass seed had been stored in a shed for over a year	Ryegrass Year 2 – 165 Year 3 – 144 Total sward DM Year 2 – 95 Year 3 – 104	Not included	Cumberland and Honore 1970
Waimate, South Canterbury	Sown plots; mown; annual yield over 3 years	119	Not included	McLeod 1973
Kaikohe, Northland	Sown plots; mown; annual yield over 2 years	105	111	Lancashire et al. 1978
Palmerston North, Manawatū	Spaced plant trial; scored after 3 years	121	151	Lancashire et al. 1978
Tihoi, north-west Taupo	Sown plots; grazed; sown with clovers; monitored over 5 years	258	200	Brown 1980; Percival and Duder 1983
Winchmore, mid-Canterbury	Sown plots; grazed; irrigated; seasonal yields of both grass and clover; monitored over 3 years	Not included	Not irrigated 150 Irrigated 152	Hayman 1980
Rukuhia, Waikato	Sown plots of ‘Ellett’ and ‘Grasslands Nui’; grazed; seasonal yields of both grass and clover	Summer 83 Autumn 139 Winter 270 Spring 106 Annual 106 Annual (grass only) 174	Summer 93 Autumn 141 Winter 238 Spring 105 Annual 109 Annual (grass only) 153	Goold 1982a
Hamilton, Waikato	Two year trial of ‘Ellett’ and ‘Grasslands Ruanui’ on a dairy farm with both cultivars free of Epichloë endophyte	Spring 115 Summer 115	Not included	Thom et al. 1998; Bahmani 1999

Further trials similar to these were established by Arthur Yates and Company Ltd at Okaihau, Cambridge, Kairanga, Darfield and Winton. Together they formed the basis of the independently reviewed ‘Ellett’ ryegrass product information published in the Farm Production and Practice (FPP) AgLink series.

Overseas, trialling and marketing of Mangere ryegrass derived cultivars

Somewhat remarkably, the ‘Ellett’ ryegrass was also commercially successful in Australia, including the Atherton Tablelands of Queensland, and South Africa, and limited quantities were also sold in the United States of America and Korea. The success of ‘Ellett’ ryegrass in New Zealand led to trialling and then its commercial release in Australia in the late 1980s. It is believed that ‘Ellett’ was the most commonly sown perennial ryegrass through the higher rainfall dairy farm areas of Victoria and Tasmania in the early 1990s. Trialling of ‘Ellett’ was primarily against the ecotype derived cultivars ‘Victorian’ (first released 1936) and ‘Kangaroo Valley’ (Strange 1961; Cunningham et al. 1994) (first released 1967). ‘Victorian’ and selected lines of ‘Kangaroo Valley’ ryegrass were severely infected by rust, and based on summer growth the following cultivars were recommended, ‘Grasslands Ariki’, ‘Ellett’, ‘Kangaroo Valley Late’ and ‘Grasslands Nui’ (Kelly 1985). It has been noted that ‘the main New Zealand bred cultivars “Grasslands Nui”, “Ellett”, and “Yatsyn 1” generally out-performed the Australian cultivars, particularly in high-fertility dairy and irrigated environments’ (Cunningham et al. 1994). The better persistence of ‘Victorian’ in the 550–700 mm rainfall regions with hot dry summers and low soil fertility meant less popularity of the New Zealand cultivars in those regions. Persistence of ‘Victorian’ ryegrass ecotype was reliant on the presence of Epichloë endophyte which, however, caused ryegrass staggers. It was noted that ‘Ellett’ persisted well irrespective of endophyte status (McKaige 1986). ‘Ellett’ was provisionally placed on the Victorian Dept of Agricultures ‘Recommended List’ in 1985, and then fully listed in 1986. In 1987, the Recommended List commented that ‘Soil moisture permitting, ‘Ellett’ is more productive than “Victorian” in summer and autumn and has high rust resistance’.

‘Ellett’ was successfully commercialised in South Africa, where it was tested to find the best grazing and level of nitrogen fertiliser to be use for the best result (McKenzie 1994 and 1997). It was a key perennial ryegrass for South African dairy farmers in the early 1990s. There were also limited sales of ‘Ellett’ in the United States of America, where it was well accepted by a niche market of dairy farmers in coastal Washington, and into Korea following trials on a university dairy farm on Jeju Island.

Impact of seed certification and the plant variety rights (PVR) act 1987

In the 1980s, the introduction of the PVR Act changed the investment landscape, with commercial companies seeing a way to invest in plant breeding, protect their IP and so derive a return. While this came too late for ‘Mangere’/‘Ellett’ ryegrass, the cultivar subsequently from ‘Ellett’, ‘Yatsyn1’, was the first perennial ryegrass to be protected under the NZ PVR Act in 1987.

Before the mid-1980s all forage plant breeding was undertaken by government agencies (e.g. DSIR) which made cultivars available to any seed producer or company to sell. Seed certification for perennial ryegrass was implemented in New Zealand in 1929 as a voluntary system to ensure seed produced was of highest physical and genetic purity, through regulating how seed was multiplied (Crump 1985; Broadfoot 1998). Seed purity and germination testing of certified seeds lots was conducted at the Ministry of Agriculture seed testing station based in Palmerston North. New Zealand is now part of the internationally recognised OECD Scheme for Certification, established in 1958, with 61 participating countries (Hampton and Scott 1990; OECD 2023).

Intellectual property protection of cultivars began with the establishment of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), an intergovernmental organisation headquartered in Geneva (Switzerland). UPOV's mission is to provide and promote an effective system of plant variety protection, with the aim of encouraging the development of new varieties of plants for the benefit of society (UPOV 2011). The International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV Convention) was adopted in Paris in 1961 and revised in 1972, 1978 and 1991.

Before 1973 an Intellectual Property asset registration system was added under the New Zealand Plant Varieties Act. The New Zealand Plant Varieties Office was first established under the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the first Plant Variety right was granted in 1976 to Sam McGredy Roses International for the Matangi floribunda rose (New Zealand Intellectual Property Office B). Regulations to provide plant variety protection for roses and barley became operative in 1975 and for other species in 1980 (Bezar et al. 1990). The New Zealand Plant Variety Rights Act was first legislated in 1987 to bring New Zealand’s PVR regime into line with the 1978 version of the UPOV Convention. A further update of the UPOV Convention occurred in 1991 and a detailed review of the New Zealand Plant Varieties Act was undertaken between 2017 and 2022 to align with the UPOV Convention 1991. The provision and regulations of the new Act came into effect on 24 January 2023 (MBIE 2022). The aim of the PVR Act legislation is to encourage investment and effort into plant breeding in New Zealand (New Zealand Intellectual Property Office 2023). ‘PVR together with certification and merit testing provide consumers and breeders with the necessary tools to effectively market quality seed of quality cultivars’ (Bezar et al. 1990).

Coinciding with the passing of The Plant Varieties Act in 1973 the New Zealand Plant Breeding and Research Association was formed, bringing together all the non-government pasture and forage breeders (PBRA 2023). The Association’s primary focus is the development and marketing of plant intellectual property through demonstrating the strength of research-proven standards of performance. Pasture plant breeding in New Zealand is now dominated by commercial companies, with government science agencies, such as AgResearch, providing science capability and support.

Epichloë endophyte – unexplainable results and the cause of much confusion

Trevor Ellett’s belief in his own Mangere ryegrass, and his perseverance to have it commercially released, led to two genetically similar ryegrass cultivars being available from 1974, which in some situations showed greatly different persistence. Why Mangere ryegrass could persist well when ‘Grasslands Nui’ did not was a question researchers looked to answer. While Epichloë endophyte was observed in the 1930s (Neil 1940, 1941) it was not until the early 1980s that the relationship between this obligate fungal endophyte and ryegrass staggers and insect tolerance was confirmed and understood to be caused by secondary metabolites (alkaloids) produced by the fungus in the plant (Fletcher and Harvey 1981; Prestidge and Barker 1982; Mortimer and Di Menna 1983). The biology and utility of Epichloë endophyte strains is now well understood and selection of appropriate novel endophyte strains, such as AR1, AR37, NEA2 mix or NEA4 mix to ensure ryegrass persistence, tolerance to a range of insect pests, while reducing animal health and welfare effects is now accepted commercial practice (Johnson et al. 2013; Caradus and Johnson 2020; Hewitt et al. 2021; Johnson et al 2021, Caradus et al. 2021a, 2021b; Caradus 2023).

Concluding comment

The contribution of Trevor Ellett, the farmer from Mangere, made directly to the advancement of ryegrass genetics and indirectly led to understanding the benefits of Epichloë endophytes should neither be forgotten nor underestimated. The legacy he left continues through the involvement of Mangere ryegrass genetics in perennial and hybrid ryegrass breeding programmes and through support provided for New Zealand’s agriculture industry by the T. R. Ellett Agricultural Research Trust. The risk and opportunity by Arthur Yates and Company Ltd to take on the commercialisation of Mangere ryegrass ecotype demonstrated the important part that the private sector has played and continues to play in the delivery of value from improved forage cultivars to the pastoral sector in New Zealand. In summary:

• The Mangere perennial ryegrass ecotype is a good example of the value of natural local strains or ecotypes that have the potential to provide novel genetic diversity developed through natural selection in an isolated, frequently dry, and hot environment, but with fertile soils and an intensively grazed management system.

• The importance of a comprehensive and forward thinking commercial agreement for seed production, marketing and sales that was based on trust, mutual respect, and a common aspiration between two parties – the farmer and the seed company.

• The enduring contribution and cooperation between both parties, in the face of regional climatic and logistical harvesting difficulties, and losses, carried increased risk and professional isolation. However, this eventually resulted in acceptance of a distinctive ryegrass gene pool that has been used in a large number of perennial ryegrass cultivars with improved persistence including a new mode of pest resistance – Epichloë endophyte,

• A novel approach to investment in pasture plant breeding that provided a new revenue stream to fund a trust fund for furthering agricultural student research.

• The determined belief and resilience of an influential university lecturer turned dairy farmer combined with a progressive agricultural seed firm that overcame commercial risk and scepticism resulting in the acceptance and mutual financial rewards to the benefit of New Zealand pastoral farming.

• To recognise and credit the contribution of agricultural science, the professional connections and collaborations in problem solving and interpreting and understanding complex and diverse fields of plant research leading to a paradigm shift and developing new beneficial technologies.

• The importance of public and private commercial independence in plant breeding and cultivar development, through the use of unbiased, well designed and managed experiments that were supported by realistic field observations, farmer led trials, and an economic assessment of cultivar performance.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the time given by Barry Whelan, Garth Cumberland and William Atkinson who discussed with John Caradus and Ross Duder their perspectives of the history of the Mangere ryegrass ecotype, some of which is summarised here. Thanks to Selwyn Manning for proof-reading the manuscript and confirming some of the detail.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).