History

The International Forage & Turf Breeding Conference 2026 (IFTBC 2026) builds on a long and proud tradition - over more than two decades – of a series of two international conferences dedicated to advances in genetic improvement of forages and turf.

The IFTBC precursor international conference series were the Molecular Breeding of Forage and Turf (MBFT) conferences that were held since 1998, and the International Symposium of Forage Breeding (ISFB) series which commenced in 2007.

The Molecular Breeding of Forage and Turf (MBFT) conference series was envisaged by Agriculture Victoria and proposed as ongoing biennial international events, to be rotating across geographies around the world, on occasion of its first workshop with the theme ‘Utilisation of Transgenic Plants and Genome Analysis in Forage Crops’ held at the National Grassland Research Institute in Nishinasuno, Tochigi, Japan in March 1998 (chaired by Hitoshi Nakagawa and Makoto Kobayashi; see photo of delegates, below).

The 2^nd MBFT was thus organized by Agriculture Victoria and held in Lorne and Hamilton, Victoria, Australia in November 2000 (chaired by German Spangenberg), as the single most important forum for international discussion of all aspects of molecular breeding of forage and turf plants, attracting over 200 delegates from around the world.

Guided by an International Organising Committee comprising German Spangenberg (chair), Mervyn Humphreys (retired, replaced by Iain Donnison), Reed Barker (retired, replaced by Zeng-Yu Wang), Odd Arne Rognli, Hitoshi Nakagawa and the chairs of the respective Local Organising Committees, the MBFT series continued uninterrupted from strength to strength for a total of 10 events over two decades.

The 3^rd MBFT was held in Dallas, Texas and Ardmore, Oklahoma, USA in May 2003 (chaired by Reed Barker) followed by the 4^th MBFT which took place in Aberystwyth, Wales, UK in June 2005 (chaired by Mervyn Humphreys) as a satellite symposium of the XX^th International Grassland Congress in Dublin, Ireland.

The 5^th MBFT returned to Japan and was held in Sapporo, Hokkaido in July 2007 (chaired by Toshihiko Yamada).

5^th MBFT 2007 delegates in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.

The 6^th MBFT took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina in March 2010 (chaired by Raul Rios); and was followed by the 7^th MBFT held in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA in June 2012 (chaired by Shaun Bushman).

7^th MBFT 2012 delegates in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

The 8^th MBFT was held in Istanbul, Türkiye in June 2014 (chaired by Hikmet Budak); with the 9^th MBFT returning to Asia and being held in Lanzhou, China in August 2016 (chaired by Zhibiao Nan).

9^th MBFT 2016 delegates in Lanzhou, China.

Proceedings of the Molecular Breeding of Forage and Turf conference series: 2^nd MBFT (Australia), 3^rd MBFT (USA), 5^th MBFT (Japan) and 8^th MBFT (Türkiye) (above, left to right).

The International Symposium of Forage Breeding (ISFB) – (SIMF- Simpósio Internacional de Melhoramento de Forrageiras) was envisaged by Embrapa Beef Cattle in 2007 in Brazil due to the need of having a national and regional forum of discussion on forage breeding and forage cultivar development-related themes. Brazil has many forage breeding programs because it has the largest area of cultivated pastures in the world covering some 120 million hectares, has the largest commercial herd, is the second beef producer in the world and is the largest beef exporter, as well as the largest tropical forage seed producer and exporter.

Logos of the Molecular Breeding of Forage and Turf (MBFT) conference series (left); the International Symposium of Forage Breeding (ISFB) – (SIMF - Simpósio Internacional de Melhoramento de Forrageiras) series (center); and of their converged International Forage and Turf Breeding Conference (IFTBC) series (right).

The first ISFB was organized by and held at Embrapa Beef Cattle in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil in 2007 and counted with 86 attendees including researchers, technicians and graduate students, as well as 15 invited speakers, with two of them from USA, one from Australia and one from Argentina.

The 2^nd ISFB was also organized and held at Embrapa Beef Cattle in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil in 2009 and had 115 participants in attendance. There were 20 invited speakers, of which one was from France and three from the USA. ISFB 2009 extended its international participation reach beyond Brazil, with ten attendees from Argentina, three from Uruguay, one from Colombia, as well as one from New Zealand. There were participants from 25 Brazilian universities and representatives from 13 Brazilian states from north to south: two from the North region, three from the North-East, three from the Central-West and the Federal District, three from the South-East and two from the South.

The 3^rd ISFB was also organized by Embrapa Beef Cattle and was held in 2011 in Bonito, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. There were over 100 delegates in attendance, as well as 15 Brazilian speakers and 5 international speakers from Colombia, Japan, UK, USA and Australia.

The 4^th ISFB was held for the first time outside Brazil, taking place in Melbourne, Australia in September 2013, and was organized by Agriculture Victoria as a satellite meeting of the International Grassland Congress. It attracted over 100 delegates from 14 countries (Australia, New Zealand, USA, UK, France, China, Netherlands, Kenya, Japan, Türkiye, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Chile), with broad representation of academic, research and commercial forage breeding programs globally, covering temperate and tropical forage grasses, forage legumes and their symbionts (rhizobia, fungal endophytes, microbiomes).

Continuing with the new approach of bringing ISFB to different geographies around the world, the 5^th ISFB was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2015. This symposium was a combined meeting and co-named with the Molecular Breeding of Forage and Turf 2015 conference (10^th MBFT).

Delegates at the combined 10^th MBFT 2015 and 5^th ISFB 2015 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Images from poster sessions at MBFT and ISFB conferences over the years.

The success of the combined 5^th ISFB and 10^th MBFT set the foundation for the two series of international conferences on genetic improvement of forage and turf to be fully converged as one – under the new and present name of International Forage and Turf Breeding Conference IFTBC for its next event, which was held in Orlando, Florida, USA in 2019 (chaired by Ken Quesenberry).

After a hiatus due to the global pandemic, the IFTBC then returned to Brazil, and was held in Brasilia, Federal District, Brazil in October 2024 (chaired by Marco Pessoa), and committing to hold the next IFTBC returning to a biennial sequence, as IFTBC 2026, in Qingdao, Shandong, China in October 2026.