Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Breeding for Improved Forage Yield Potential and Digestibility in Tall Fescue (Schedonorus arundinaceus (Schreb.) Dumort.)

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  • Tall fescue is a perennial forage grass widely used in areas not well-suited to perennial ryegrass due to climatic or edaphic stressors including drought and low or high pH. Although tall fescue has many agronomic attributes that make it well suited to a wide range of environments, it is lower in palatability and digestibility than Lolium species. To take full advantage of tall fescue, genetic improvements in digestibility are needed to increase animal performance. The goal of this study was to improve fiber digestibility and yield of early and medium maturing tall fescue genotypes through recurrent phenotypic selection. Improving fiber digestibility and yield concurrently is a challenge because yield and fiber content are positively correlated. Sixteen plants were selected from both an early maturity source population of 1600 plants and from a medium maturity source population of 1700 plants. Selected plants from each maturity group were placed in separate polycross blocks. Using resulting half-sib seeds, two spaced-plant nurseries were established in Philomath, Oregon to evaluate forage and seed yield and agro-morphological characteristics including plant height, tiller number, and heading date. In addition, small plot trials were established in Boyd, Kentucky in 2018 to quantify forage yield and estimate forage quality. In the Oregon spaced-plant nurseries, forage yield, seed yield, heading date, tiller number, and plant height were significantly different (P<0.05) among genotypes. In the Kentucky small plot trials, significant differences were found for forage yield, NDF, ADF, TDN, RFV, and RFQ in the first cutting while only forage yields were significantly different for second and third cuttings. Thus, although there is a positive correlation between forage yield and fiber (NDF and ADF), concurrent improvements can be obtained for yield and digestibility through recurrent phenotypic selection. Since tall fescue does not produce culmed (jointed) vegetative shoots in regrowth, quality evaluation from the first cutting is most critical in selecting for improved digestibility.
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  • Pending Publication
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  • 2020-04-09 to 2021-05-10

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