Development of Rice Varieties for Whole Crop Silage(WCS) Use in Korea.

To control rice over-production and increase forage self-sufficiency, rice cultivar for WCS use in Korea have been bred since 2000s. At present, 6 WCS rice varieties such as ‘Nokyang’, ‘Mogwoo’, ‘Mogyang’, ‘Nokwoo’, etc. and 6 elite lines, which are on local adaptability test, have been developed. ‘Nokyang’ was the first variety for WCS use, which was a mid-maturing variety crossed Tong-il type ‘Yongmun’ and tropical japonica ‘IR67396-16-3-1-1’ and had erect and wide leaf, grain shattering resistance and high dry matter yield(16.5t/ha). To more increase biomass of whole aerial parts and enhance disease resistance, we crossed ‘Dasan’ and ‘Suweon431/IR71190-45-2-1’ and developed ‘Mogwoo’ which had late-maturing time, especially high dry matter yield(19.6t/ha) and resistance to leaf blast(BL), bacterial blight(BB) and rice stripe virus(RSV). ‘Mogyang’, which had long panicle, markedly more spikelet numbers, less tillers per hill and high total digestible nutrients(TDN), was also late-flowering, resistant to BL, RSV, lodging and 17.7t/ha for its dry matter yield and ‘Jungmo1038’, which had glabrous hulls and leaves, had bred to improve palatability of livestock. Recently, we made a late-maturing variety, ‘Nokwoo’, which had a good early growth and low-temperature germinability suitable for direct seeding. In order to much more improve feeding value and some weak points of the varieties developed so far, we are now breeding lots of lines such as ‘Suweon573’, ‘Suweon598’, etc. that have high ripening rate and TDN, brown planthopper and BB(race K3a) resistance for eco-friendly cultivation, salt tolerance for reclaimed land use and good direct seeding to save agricultural operating costs, good digestibility for cattle, high vitamin E and anthocyanin for promoting the added value of the beef.