‘Homestead’ (Reg. No. CV-255, PI 655522) Canada wildrye (Elymus canadensis L.) was developed cooperatively by USDA-ARS and the University of Nebraska and was released in 2008 for use in the Great Plains and the Midwest USA, a region for which no adapted cultivars were previously available. It was developed by means of the Ecotype Selection Breeding System from a collection made in a remnant prairie in Eastern Nebraska USA. Homestead, which was tested as NE3, is adapted to Plant Adaptation Region (PAR) 251-5 (Temperate Prairie Parkland–Plant Hardiness Zone 5), which is its origin, and in which it has been evaluated in both space-transplanted and sward trials. This region is equivalent to USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 5 of the tallgrass-prairie ecoregion of the Midwest, USA. When grown in its area of adaptation, it produces more forage than the previously available, unadapted cultivar of the species and its forage has higher in vitro dry matter digestibility than another adapted experimental strain to which it was compared in sward forage yield trials. Its primary use will be as a native cool-season grass component of conservation, roadside, and grassland seeding mixtures
