"Sarsfield" is coming back to save Ireland, it was announced yesterday at the National Tillage Open Day in Carlow.
This particular Sarsfield is not the famous general but a new style of "supergrass" variety aimed at enhancing Ireland's competitive advantage in growing grass.
It and two other varieties with proven benefits in yield, higher quality, nutrition and extended growth patterns were on show yesterday at the Teagasc event.
Sarsfield and Magician and Greengold grass seeds have already been distributed to Irish farmers and are being used to improve milk yield and meat produced from animals fed on grass.
The new varieties of grass have been developed by a Teagasc team led by Dr Vincent Connelly.
This team has embarked on a programme of molecular biotechnology to produce grasses with the capacity to further capitalise on Ireland's natural advantage as a low-cost producer of quality food.
Details of the new programme were announced yesterday by Teagasc, which said new scientific methods of producing grasses with superior yield and quality characteristics were now being used.