b'Seed production, however, faces additional challenges, particu-larly due to EU regulatory changes. Over the past decade, political agendas have limited the use of certain chemical plant protection products, historically employed to ensure high-quality seed certifi-cation. This creates difficulties in regions where weed populations are building up. At the end-user level, the removal of crop protec-tion primarily affects professional turf managers, who often have limited tools to combat disease outbreaks, Rasmussen notes.Charrier adds that with the decreasing number of herbicides available to seed growers, producing seed at a high level of quality and purity has become increasingly challenging. New crop manage-ment techniques are being trialled to counterbalance these issues.These pressures underscore the importance of integrating breeding, agronomic practices, and technological monitoring to maintain both yield and quality in modern Festuca varieties.UNIFORMITY AND OTHER CHALLENGESDLF, Barenbrug, and DSV rely primarily on their own breeding material but also incorporate competitors varieties, wild collections, and genebank accessions. Regarding germplasm availability, the companies emphasise that the ITPGRFA Annex 1 list supersedes the requirements of the Nagoya Protocol, enabling the collection of wild Festuca species.Festucas wide genetic diversity, while a valuable resource, pre-sents challenges for meeting Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS) requirements. Abelard notes that uniformity is particularly difficult to achieve. Uniformity in Festuca is heavily influenced by weather conditions. This has become increasingly apparent in recent years, with atypical winter and spring conditions observed across Europe.Fescue breeders test traits such as yield, rust resistance, leaf softness,Quitt adds that despite high genetic variability, careful obser-digestibility, winter hardiness, summer persistence, and ground cover.Photo: DSV. vation and selection help maintain uniformity.36ISEED WORLD EUROPEISEEDWORLD.COM/EUROPE | SEPTEMBER 2025'