Variation of Forage Associated Traits in 299 Great Plains Hard Winter Wheat Germplasm.

Winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) has been widely grown as a winter forage crop, but little is known about forage yield and nutritive value of winter wheat germplasm. With the aim of identifying germplasm with great forage yield and nutritive value, a set of 299 hard winter wheat accession selected from the Great Plains was evaluated. Field trials were conducted during two growing seasons to evaluate 17 forage-related traits. There was a significant genotypic effect (P<0.0001) on all the forage traits but environmental effect and genotype × environment interaction were significant for nine and ten traits, respectively. A significant portion of the forage traits have been affected by genetic base (broad sense heritability ranged 0.26 to 0.58), indicating an ability to breed for improved the forage traits. Dry matter yield (DMY) of the germplasm ranged from 1,260 kg ha?1 for Cheyenne to 4,158 kg ha?1 for Sturdy2K. Crude protein concentration (CPC, % DM) varied from 16.1% for OK05108 to 26.8% for Nuplains. Origin of the germplasm presented a significant effect on most forage traits except sugar, Mg, K, and WSC while seed color did not have any effects on all the forage traits. In the case of DMY, there were significant effects of origin, semi-dwarf type, and year of release. When both DMY and CPC were considered, Sturdy2K was the best germplasm for the tested regions, followed by 2180 and OK1068009. This study identified significant differences in the forage traits among the hard winter wheat germplasm collected from the Great Plains and the results of this study could provide useful guidelines and starting points for winter forage wheat breeding programs.