Evaluation of new hybrid brachiaria lines in Thailand. 1. Forage production and quality

Michael Hare has been involved with seed production of tropical and temperate forage grasses and legumes for almost four decades in Thailand (tropical) and New Zealand (temperate). In Thailand Michael started large scale machine harvesting of Townsville stylo and Verano stylo in the 1970s and later was involved in a village farmer seed programme of various species which continues until this day. From 1984 to 1994 Michael worked as a herbage seed scientist at Grasslands Division, DSIR, Palmerston North, New Zealand, researching seed production problems on a wide range of temperate species. Since 1994, Michael has worked at Ubon Ratchathani University in Thailand, researching seed production of tropical forages and starting a new village seed programme with Tropical Seeds, a subsidiary of a Mexican seed company, Grupo Papalotla. This programme contracts over 1000 village farmers in Thailand and Laos to produce seed of Mulato II and Cayman hybrid brachiarias, Mombasa and Tanzania guinea grasses, Ubon paspalum and Ubon stylo. Seed is currently being exported to countries in Central America, the South Pacific, other parts of Asia and now Africa. Michael conducts research trials on the above species and is involved in final evaluation of new hybrid brachiaria accessions from CIAT for which Grupo Papalotla has the production rights. Michael is a professor in the Faculty of Agriculture, Ubon Ratchathani University and recently became a Fellow of the Tropical Grassland Society of Australia Inc. He has been author or co-author of 130 papers on various aspects of seed and forages in both temperate and tropical pastures.