New forage plant was developed for Brazilian soil and climate conditions and designed for integrated crop-livestock-forestry systems (ICLFS). Named BRS Integra, it offers higher fodder production in-between harvests. It produces large amounts of leaves with high nutritional quality and expressive stubble, ensuring a good soil cover. By keeping productivity high in the winter, BRS Integra can be used both as fodder to feed cattle in-between harvests and as stubble for much. Embrapa's forage breeding program developed the first cultivar of Urochloa ruziziensis or Brachiaria ruziziensis, the scientific name for Congo signal grass or ruzi grass (read explanation below). This cultivar was developed for Brazilian soil and climate conditions and was named BRS Integra because it was designed for integrated crop-livestock-forestry systems (ICLFS). According to Embrapa Dairy Cattle researcher Fausto Souza Sobrinho, who led the studies, in comparison with the cultivar currently in market (cv. Kennedy), BRS Integra shows higher fodder production in the period between harvests, when the grass is not intercropped with anything else in the area. “Such distinction, in the period of drought, makes the cultivar more suitable for ICLFS, as it can contribute to increased productivity in those systems”, explains Souza Sobrinho. Before BRS Integra, cv. Kennedy was the existing ruziziensis cultivar in the market of forage seeds. The problem is that it was not especifically developed for Brazilian soil and climate conditions. For the researcher, despite adapting well to the different environmental conditions of the country, the cultivar Kennedy offers lower production of fodder when compared with cultivars of other Brachiaria species such as brizantha or decumbens. “This happens especially in the winter, in-between crops, when, in integrated farming systems, forage plants are alone in the area or are only followed by the forest component”, Souza Sobrinho explains. By keeping productivity high in the winter, BRS Integra can be used both as fodder to feed cattle in-between harvests and as stubble for mulch for the next plantation. The scientist explains that although brizantha and decumbens have the largest cultivated area in the country, ruziziensis has been gaining space as ICLFS grows. “The species has been often used in those systems as it is better adapted to oversowing in comparison with the others. Alexandre Brighenti , another Embrapa researcher, points another advantage. “Ruziziensis is more sensitive to herbicides, and thus requires lower doses as it dries pre-sowing in no-till farming systems.” Moreover, the species seed production is uniform since it only blooms once a year, which makes control easier.. The new name of Brachiaria: Urochloa Originally from Africa, signal grasses have shown good adaptation to low fertility soils and to different climates and latitudes, aggressiveness in the competition with weeds, and support for good animal performance. These qualities have made the genus Brachiaria synonymous with pasture. Cultivated in tropical regions, the grass genus has over a hundred species. In addition to ruziziensis, other species that are rather known and used in Brazil are decumbens, brizantha and humidicola. Out of a total of 180 million hectares of pastures in the country, 80% belong to the Brachiaria genus. Or used to belong. Scientists have recently reclassified nearly all the Brachiarias into the Urochloa genus. The reclassification follows taxonomic criteria (classification rules) whose role is to organize plants and animals, facilitating the study and the identification of living organisms. Therefore, each plant or animal gets a scientific name (genus) and surname (species), but changes can happen to make the work of scientists easier. That is what happened with Brachiaria. However, due to legal issues, since the last taxonomic reclassification, the scientific nomenclature for signal grass started to be “Urochloa (synonymy, Brachiaria)” or “Brachiaria (synonymy, Urochloa)”. Fortunately, nothing has changed for farmers, and Brachiaria grasses continue to be called as such in Brazil. Embrapa's recommendations for the cultivation of BRS Integra Composed by vigorous mid-sized plants, with height between 80 cm to 110 cm, BRS Integra shows good soil cover capacity and its growth tends to be erect. The final third of the leaves is arched and measure 25 cm (length) and 1.5 cm (width) on average. The plant shows thin culms and high rate of both basal and axillary (aerial) tillering. At Embrapa Dairy Cattle's experimental field, in Coronel Pacheco, MG, blooming occurs in the months of February and March, and the seeds mature in April and May. In comparison with cv. Kennedy, the overall fodder and stubble the new cultivar produces in the autumn/winter period (dry season in most of Brazil) is higher. Recommended for the Atlantic Rainforest biome, BRS Integra is adapted to medium to high fertility soils, and can be cultivated from sea level to 1,800 meters of altitude. The researchers recommend avoiding wet lowlands or areas that are prone to floods. If the sowing is exclusively for the establishment of a pasture, there should be conventional soil preparation, with tillage and disk harrowing depending on plot needs and conditions. During the sowing, there should be special attention to weed control so as not to compromise the establishment and longevity of the pasture. In the case of intercropping in integrated crop systems, the sowing could take place concomitantly. Another way is to plant the grass a few days after the crop, in order to prevent or reduce initial competition, which can also be overcome with oversowing close to the crop harvest. The development of BRS Integra The fact there was only one ruziziensis cultivar available in the seeds market that had no detailed information about its forage potential hindered cultivation. “As the area cultivated with ruziziensis increased, the issue led Embrapa to research new cultivars that could meet the demand from Brazilian cattle farming”, Souza Sobrinho reports. According to him, breeding the species prioritized the obtainment of high productivity cultivars with good forage quality. The possibility of use in ICLFS, which have expanded in the last decade, guided the path of the development of BRS Integra. “The breeding program's strategy centered in recurrent phenotypic selection, which is based on cycles of assessment, identification and selection of the best individuals and their recombination to obtain new improved populations, that is, with higher frequencies of the most desirable alleles”, the researcher explains. The existence of genetic variability among ruziziensis progenies or plants for all the assessed traits, which was observed in the first cycles, has stimulated the species' breeding and genetic improvement program and shown opportunities for the selection of superior genotypes. By the end of the third selection cycle, there were 14 improved populations for further assessment. Such groups were identified basically due to their superiority concerning fodder yield and quality. The population called "REC 2" stood out in later assessments, including tests to determine the value for cultivation and use (VCU) performed between 2013 and 2016. The genetic material was also tested in grazing conditions, pursuant to the rules for VCU testing by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (Mapa), from 2016 to 2018. In such tests with grazing, the REC 2 population proved to be similar to the commercial cultivar (Kennedy) both in terms of fodder yield and in animal performance. Similarities between the two cultivars were also observed in comparative tests of milk productivity of crossbred cows. In this in case, despite animal productivity being similar, BRS Integra confirmed the results obtained in the VCU tests by producing higher amounts of fodder and leaves and lower amounts of dead material in the dry season, as well presenting better leaf-to-stem ratio for most of the year, in contrast with Kennedy. Once REC 2 population's superiority was confirmed in the VCU tests, it was registered at MAPA as a new cultivar number 40794 named U. ruziziensis “BRS Integra” on April 29, 2019. This new cultivar received Mapa's cultivar protection certificate number 20210042 on Jan 21, 2021. BRS Integra was launched on March 24, 2022 on Embrapa's Youtube channel and seeds are available for purchase at Unipasto.