Abstract
Maize forage is commonly used as silage in milk and beef cattle livestock production systems. Despite the wide variety of maize hybrids with high potential for grain production, few available hybrids have been developed exclusively for forage aptitude. The present study aimed to select S3 maize progenies derived from the single hybrid AS1572 based on the combining ability of forage traits in topcrosses with testers AG8025, 70.H26.1, and MLP102. The 135 resulting topcross hybrids were assessed in partial diallel in Guarapuava and Rio Bonito do Iguaçu, Paraná State, Brazil. Were evaluated the contents of neutral detergent fiber (NDF, %DM) and acid detergent fiber (ADF, %DM), forage dry matter yield (DMY, t ha-1), and in situ digestibility of forage dry matter (DIG, %DM). For all evaluated traits, the variability allowed us to select superior progenies. Progenies 3.1, 22.1, and 39.1stood out in terms of NDF, ADF, and DIG, whereas progenies 47.1, 73.1, 79.1, and 90.2 were efficient in increasing the forage dry matter yield. The testers AG8025 and 70.H26.1, of narrow genetic base, are the best to explore genetic variability among progenies.
Highlights
Maize forage is commonly used as silage in livestock production systems for both milk and beef cattle (Neumann et al, 2009)
Forty-five S3 progenies obtained from maize single hybrid AS1572 by successive cycles of selfing were crossed by manual pollination with three testers (AG8025, 70.H26.1, and MLP102), resulting in 135 topcross hybrids
AG8025 hybrid was used as a commercial check
Summary
Maize forage is commonly used as silage in livestock production systems for both milk and beef cattle (Neumann et al, 2009). Despite the importance of maize forage and the wide variety of maize hybrids with high potential for grain production, few available hybrids have been designed exclusively for forage use. Gralak et al (2017) reported the existence of variability in commercial hybrids regarding the quality of forage, and Barrière et al (2010) showed that superior genotypes could be selected from already improved ones. Despite this variability, breeding programs have mainly focused on genotypes with high grain and dry matter yields. These programs have achieved significant gains for field traits (Barrière et al, 2004), such as maize stalk lodging resistance and increased lignin content, but have continued to ignore qualitative attributes (Barrière et al, 2005)
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