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Selection of grazing‐tolerant lucerne cultivars
Author(s) -
Pecetti L.,
Romani M.,
De Rosa L.,
Piano E.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
grass and forage science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.716
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1365-2494
pISSN - 0142-5242
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2494.2008.00640.x
Subject(s) - habit , grazing , cultivar , biology , germplasm , agronomy , introgression , stocking , medicago sativa , dry matter , trait , yield (engineering) , zoology , psychology , biochemistry , gene , computer science , psychotherapist , materials science , metallurgy , programming language
Improvement of grazing‐tolerance in lucerne ( Medicago sativa L.) is an objective of interest worldwide for the acknowledged potential of this species in pastures. A breeding programme applied standard methods of the selection for this trait, which implies continuous stocking and intensive grazing, to germplasm preliminarily selected for reportedly positive morphological attributes (large and deep crowns; non‐erect growth habit). In this study six experimental cultivars, originating from this programme, and three check varieties were evaluated. Grazing tolerance was assessed under continuous sheep stocking for 2 years. Herbage yield in 3 years and seed yield (in the second year) were also evaluated in distinct and contiguous sub‐experiments. One experimental cultivar had a prostrate habit, two were semi‐prostrate, and three were semi‐erect. Under grazing, five of them showed final persistence similar to, or better than, that of the tolerant check variety adopted in the standard test. In particular, the prostrate experimental cultivar (termed Camporegio) had remarkable persistence, although associated with low vigour, associated with the introgression of M. sativa ssp. falcata into its parentage. A semi‐erect cultivar (termed Verbena) possessed a good balance between grazing tolerance, potential dry‐matter yield and seed yield.