b'AIMING FOR ATURFGRASS TOUCHDOWNA Slippery Super Bowl just one of many challenges for Oklahoma State turfgrass breeders.Madeleine BaergON FEB. 11, 2023,the Kansas City Chiefs met the Philadelphia Eagles for Super Bowl LVII. It was, according to nearly everyone, a slip-slidey mess. Some fans blamed players for not wearing the right cleats. The long-term groundskeeper blamed the field director. Many players and coaches looked to the grass: a warm season bermudagrass cultivar called Tahoma 31, bred by Dr. Yanqi Wu, a regents professor who leads Oklahoma State University (OSU)s turf and forage breeding program. Its not easy breeding new turfgrass cultivars. Its even more difficult breeding new turfgrass cultivars that will be tested to the limit in front of a live, national audience. Both of those challenges pale in comparison to the difficulty of breeding new turfgrass cultivars that will be successful despite the myriad complexities of a changing marketplace and changing climate. The challenges of developing new turfgrass varietiesThe turfgrass industry in the U.S. is large and growing. It is estimated the U.S. turfgrass acreage is about 45 to 50 million acres todayfour times as many total acres as are planted to cotton in America, and about equal to the U.S. winter and spring wheat acreage combined. Turfgrass is a perennial crop that, like any crop, must withstand multiple stress factors unique to the environment in which it is planted and cultivated. Whats unique about turf, however, is that a successful turfgrass variety must be suitable to a very wide geographic area.Unlike annual crops in which specific cultivars are grown in a small region or a single state or a few states, successful turfgrass cultivars should adapt to multiple states since the sod production area in each state is much Dr. Yanqi Wu assesses his turfgrass plots at smaller than that of field crops, Wu says. Oklahoma State University.10/ SEEDWORLD.COMOCTOBER 2023'