Teachers from College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology and State Key Laboratory of Grass Seed Innovation and Grassland Agro-ecosystems attended the 25th International Grassland Congress

On May 14 to 19, 2023, the 25th International Grassland Congress, hosted by the University of Kentucky, was held in Covington, Kentucky, the United States. Over 600 participants from 15 countries attended the congress, including scientific and technological researchers engaged in grassland science and related disciplines, those from government agencies and enterprises, and farmers and herdsmen in front-line production. A total of 14 teachers, including Professor He Jinsheng, Professor Li Chunjie, Professor Hou Fujiang, Professor Wang Suomin, Professor Shen Yuying, Professor Liu Zhipeng, Professor Lin Huilong, Professor Hu Xiaowen, Professor Hu Tao, Professor Lei Lei, Associate Researcher Wu Yanpei, Associate Researcher Xia Chao, Dr. Feng Yanli and Dr. Li Lan attended the whole congress.

The theme of the congress was grassland for soil, animal and human health, with five parallel sessions on grassland ecology, grassland production and utilization, livestock production system, sustainable innovation of grasslands, grassland policies, social problems and ecosystem services. Among them, Professor He Jinsheng gave a keynote speech on “Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning under climate change in alpine grasslands”. Shen Yuying, Wang Suomin, Liu Zhipeng and Li Lan delivered 6 parallel-session reports, with 2 posters and 1 grassland research booth. During the congress, combining their own research direction and interested topics, the teachers actively learned and exchanged opinions at each parallel session. In the exhibition segment, the teachers promoted the English journal Grassland Research and distributed souvenirs to interested participants. The Editorial Department also invited Editorial Board members for a meetup during the conference. During the congress, visits to the company Roundstone Native Seed, the test farm of the University of Kentucky and several farms in Kentucky were organized to understand US’s grass seed status, grass seed production process, application of main grasses such as tall fescue in Kentucky, and horse breeding and horse industry status.

Before the conference, a pre-congress tour was organized from May 6 to 13, mainly to communicate with ranchers and extension professors and experts from relevant universities and research institutes, understand local ranch management situation, and the combination of production, education and research between ranches and agricultural and animal husbandry research institutes. The participants took two study routes. In one route, participants visited ranches and experiment stations at King, Hillingdon, Craig Waston and Klemme in Texas and Oklahoma, and exchanged with ranchers and extension professors and experts at Texas A&M University, Oklahoma State University and USDA agricultural experiment stations. In the other route, participants investigated the high-quality forage breeding, forage production system and livestock production system in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Kentucky, dropped by ranches and experiment stations at Deseret, Alapaha, UGA Tifton, Yon Family, Clemson and Berea College, visited Okefenokee Wetland Park and Sunbelt Agricultural Trade Show, and communicated with ranchers and extension professors and experts from University of Florida, University of Georgia, Clemson University and Berea College.

During the visit, Professor Li Chunjie and Professor Hu Xiaowen respectively paid visits to Professor Christopher Schardl, Chair of Department of Plant Pathology and an internationally renowned endomycologist of the University of Kentucky, as well as Professor Carol Baskin and her husband, internationally renowned seed scientists of the Department of Biology. Professor Lin Huilong was at the University of Florida and Professor Lei Lei at the University of California, Davis for a short visit, project collaboration progress update and academic exchanges, respectively.