Monday
November 12th
Session I – Part I
Meeting room “Cerro de las Rosas” (08:00 to 09:30)
World Alfalfa Production and Demand
Chairs: Daniel Basigalup, Argentina / Lu Xinshi, China
08:00 to 08:15 | Alfalfa Improvement in China | Lu Xinsi, China |
08:15 to 08:30 | Overview of the economic utilization and traits of interest of lucerne in Australia |
Alan Humphries, Australia |
08:30 to 08:45 | An overview of alfalfa situation in Argentina | Daniel Basigalup, Argentina |
08:45 to 09:00 | Situation of the Alfalfa Dehydration Sector in Europe | Eiko Jan Duursema, The Netherlands |
09:00 to 09:15 | Alfalfa Situation in USA & Canada | Dan Gardner, USA |
09:15 to 09:30 | Questions/Discussion | |
9:30 to 10:00 | Break / Visit to Posters & Sponsor Stands |
Session I – Part II
Meeting room “Cerro de las Rosas” (10:00 to 10:45)
World Alfalfa Production and Demand
10:00 to 10:15 | Overview of Arabic Countries Alfalfa Demand | Gabriel Osatinsky, Argentina |
10:15 to 10:30 | Supply and Demand of Alfalfa in China | Guixia Qian, China |
10:30 to 10:45 | Questions/Discussion | |
10:45 to 11:15 | Open Ceremony | |
11:15 to 11:45 | Break / Visit to Posters & Sponsor Stands |
Session II
Meeting room “Cerro de las Rosas” (11:45 to 13.15)
Increasing Water Use Efficiency in Alfalfa Production
Chair: Daniel H. Putnam, USA
11:45 to 12:00 | Water footprint of alfalfa hay production in Córdoba, Argentina. | Rodolfo Bongiovanni, Argentina |
12:00 to 12:15 | Irrigation Research on Yield and Quality in China. | Haijun Yan, China |
12:15 to 12:30 | Salinity Tolerance of Alfalfa | Sharon Bene, USA |
12:30 to 12:45 | Deficit Irrigation Strategies—Why Alfalfa is the Best Crop to Have in a Drought. | Daniel H. Putnam, USA |
12:45 to 13:00 | Technological Innovations to Improve Water Management in Alfalfa and Forage Crops | Steve Evett, USA |
13:00 to 13:15 | Questions/Discussion | |
13:15 to 14:30 | Lunch at your own |
Special Program
Meeting room “Río IV” (13:15 to 14:30)
Session III
Meeting room “Cerro de las Rosas” (14:30 to 16:15)
Abiotic stresses (drought, salinity and cold): Breeding and Field Management
Chairs: Paolo Annichiarico, Italy / E. Charles Brummer, USA
14:30 to 14:45 | Alfalfa breeding for intercropping and grazing tolerance | Bernadette Julier, France |
14:45 to 15:00 | Field management for grazing / drought tolerance | Twain Butler, USA |
15:00 to 15:15 | Breeding alfalfa for cold tolerance in Canada | Annick Bertrand, Canada |
15:15 to 15:30 | Introgression of alfalfa crop wild relatives for climate change adaptation | Alan Humphries, Australia |
15:30 to 15:45 | Fall dormancy: evaluation, breeding, and genomics | E. Charles Brummer, USA |
15:45 to 16:00 | Genome-enabled and phenotypic selection of alfalfa for widely-diversified cropping environments | Paolo Annicchiarico, Italy |
16:00 to 16:15 | Questions/Discussion | |
16:15 to 16:45 | Break / Visit to Posters & Sponsor Stands |
Session IV
Meeting room “Cerro de las Rosas” (16:45 to 18:00)
Biotic stresses: insects, diseases and weeds
Chair: Deborah Samac, USA
16:45 to 17:00 | Genetic mapping of resistance to Aphanomyces root rot in alfalfa. | Deborah Samac, USA |
17:00 to 17:15 | Alfalfa dwarf disease, a viral complex affecting alfalfa crop in Argentina. | Verónica Trucco, Argentina |
17:15 to 17:30 | Advances of alfalfa breeding for thrips resistance in China. | Fengling Shi, China |
17:30 to 17:45 | Global climate change and pests of alfalfa: problems and solutions | Scott Johnson, Australia |
17:45 to 18:00 | Questions/Discussion |
Tuesday
November 13th
8:00 to 8:20 | Modification of endogenous genes by GE and gene-editing techniques | Zengyu Wang, China |
8:20 to 8:40 | GE lignin modification in alfalfa | Stephen Temple, USA |
8:40 to 9:00 | Transgenic alfalfa tolerant to herbicides, from lab to field | Gabriela Soto, Argentina |
9:00 to 9:20 | Produce for any market: coexistence of genetically-engineered and conventional alfalfa hay | Daniel H. Putnam, USA |
9:20 to 9:40 | Developing a package of data required for de-regulation of a GE traits | Martin Lema, Argentina |
9:40 to 10:00 | Questions/Discussion | |
10:00 to 10:30 | Break / Visit to Posters & Sponsor Stands |
Session V
Meeting room “Cerro de las Rosas” (8:00 to 10:00)
GE Alfalfas
Chairs: Federico Trucco, Argentina / Mark McCaslin, USA
10:30 to 10:45 | Alfalfa forage quality breeding in France: 30 years of common efforts from seed industry, dehydratation industry and public research | Vincent Beguier, France |
10:45 to 11:00 | Modification of rate and extent of fiber digestibility in alfalfa | Jon Reich, USA |
11:00 to 11:15 | A very non-dormant alfalfa with high multifoliolate expression | Ariel Odorizzi, Argentina |
11:15 to 11:30 | Use of GE traits for improvement of forage quality in alfalfa | Mark McCaslin, USA |
11:30 to 11:45 | Ideal alfalfa variety | Jinhui Shao, China |
11:45 to 12:00 | Questions/Discussion |
Session VI
Meeting room “Cerro de las Rosas” (10:30 to 12:00)
Breeding for alfalfa quality
Chairs: Don Miller, USA / Mike Peterson, USA
Special Program
Meeting room “Río Cuarto” (12:00 to 13:30)
Joint Presentation from the Argentine Alfalfa Association on Quality Argentine Alfalfa
Hay Production & the Undersecretary of Agricultural Markets (Ministry of Agroindustry) on Business Opportunities with Argentina
Lunch at your own
13:30 to 13:45 | Effects of different levels of alfalfa meal on production performance of sows and pork quality of finishing pigs | Chengzhang Wang, China |
13:45 to 14:00 | World Trends in Alfalfa hay market | Daniel H. Putnam, USA |
14:00 to 14:15 | Research priorities and future of alfalfa in Latin America | Duarte Vilela, Brazil |
14:15 to 14:30 | Promoting the use of alfalfa in the production systems of the Punjab Province in Pakistan | Qamar Shakil, Pakistan |
14:30 to 14:45 | Breeding and field management of alfalfa in the climatic conditions of Pakistan | Abid Mahmood, Pakistan |
14:45 to 15:00 | Spanish dehydrated alfalfa, a different way to produce alfalfa | Francisco Tabuenca, Spain |
15:00 to 15:30 | Break / Visit to Posters & Sponsor Stands |
Session VII
Meeting room “Cerro de las Rosas” (13:30 to 15:00)
Alfalfa Processing, New Uses, New Areas and Export Market
Chair: Valeria Arolfo, Argentina
15:30 to 15:45 | Response of alfalfa to climate change | Guillaume Jego, France |
15:45 to 16:00 | Role of perennial crops and legumes to the sustainable intensification | Pablo Tittonell, Argentina |
16:00 to 16:15 | Maximizing the nitrogen fixation and minimizing the nitrous oxide emissions in alfalfa using natural inoculants | Nicolás Ayub, Argentina |
16:15 to 16:30 | New services from perennial legumes in agroecological farming systems. | Christian Huyghe, France |
16:30 to 16:45 | Alfalfa and its potential in the Argentine dairy systems | Eduardo Cameron, Argentina |
16:45 to 17:00 | Predicament and outlet of alfalfa production under water sources scarcity in China | Xiangyang Hou, China |
17:00 to 17:15 | Questions/Discussion |
Session VIII
Meeting room “Cerro de las Rosas” (15:30 to 17:15)
Alfalfa-based Production Systems to Meet Economic and Environmental Challenges
Chair: Christian Huyghe, France
Banquet and Argentine Music and Dance Show
Meeting room “Cerro de las Rosas” (21:00 to 23:00)
Wednesday
November 14th
DEPARTURE FROM HOLLIDAY INN CÓRDOBA CAPITAL
7:45 Hs.
Participants will be divided into two groups: I and II
Distance to destination (Calchín, Córdoba): 124 km (78 miles)

Stop I
PELLFOOD ARGENTINA
– industrial plant for making alfalfa pellets –
10:00 Hs. | Arrival of Group I |
11:00 Hs. | Arrival of Group II |
Stop II
ALFACAL
– industrial plant for producing high-density large prismatic bales –
10:00 Hs. | Arrival of Group I |
11:00 Hs. | Arrival of Group II |
Launch and Folk Music Show
in Stop II (12:00 a 13:45)
Stop III
Variety plots and hay machinery dynamic show
Both groups simultaneously
14:00 – 14:45 Hs. | Station 1: variety trial (37 cultivars) |
14:45 – 16:45 Hs. | Station 2: hay machinery (different operations) show |

- Stop Pellfood Argentina
- Stop Alfacal
- Stop variety trial and hay machinery show