Selecting new Brachiaria humidicola hybrids for western Brazilian Amazon

Giselle Mariano L De Assis,Cacilda B Do Valle,Judson F Valentim, ,Carlos Mauricio S De Andrade

doi:10.17138/tgft(1)42-44

Abstract

Brachiaria humidicola is a perennial and stoloniferous forage grass, with excellent adaptation to infertile soils and waterlogging. Producers in northern Brazil have become interested in this species, especially after the degradation of large areas of lowly permeable soils sown with B. brizantha cv. Marandu, which is highly intoler-ant of soil waterlogging (Andrade and Valentim 2006). However, since only 3 cultivars of B. humidicola are registered in Brazil (Mapa 2013), there is a need to de-velop new cultivars adapted to the range of environ-mental conditions experienced. Recently, Embrapa Beef Cattle obtained intraspecific hybrids of B. humidicola that need to be evaluated agronomically, aiming at sub-sequent grazing trials and future releases. The objective of this study was to evaluate and select apomictic and sexual hybrids of B. humidicola under the environmental conditions of the state of Acre, in western Brazilian Amazon.

Highlights

Brachiaria humidicola is a perennial and stoloniferous forage grass, with excellent adaptation to infertile soils and waterlogging
Since only 3 cultivars of B. humidicola are registered in Brazil (Mapa 2013), there is a need to develop new cultivars adapted to the range of environmental conditions experienced
The lack of genetic variability for crude protein (CP) and lignin concentrations prevented selection of hybrids based on these traits

Summary

Introduction

Brachiaria humidicola is a perennial and stoloniferous forage grass, with excellent adaptation to infertile soils and waterlogging. Producers in northern Brazil have become interested in this species, especially after the degradation of large areas of lowly permeable soils sown with B. brizantha cv. Marandu, which is highly intolerant of soil waterlogging (Andrade and Valentim 2006). Since only 3 cultivars of B. humidicola are registered in Brazil (Mapa 2013), there is a need to develop new cultivars adapted to the range of environmental conditions experienced. Embrapa Beef Cattle obtained intraspecific hybrids of B. humidicola that need to be evaluated agronomically, aiming at subsequent grazing trials and future releases. The objective of this study was to evaluate and select apomictic and sexual hybrids of B. humidicola under the environmental conditions of the state of Acre, in western Brazilian Amazon

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion