Genetic variations and inheritance of quantitative characters in two populations of meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis, Huds.) and their hybrid

The variation and covariation of yield, quality, earliness, and related characters have been studied within and between two populations by growing of clones in one replicated experiment and clones and full sib families in another. Broad sense heritabilities estimated from the variation among clones, narrow sense heritabilities estimated from parent‐offspring regressions, and genotypic and genetic correlations between some of the characters of greatest interest in breeding are presented. The variation and narrow sense heritabilities show that considerable improvement can be achieved by selection for yield, protein content, and digestibility of the dry matter measured by the common laboratory method and by means of NIRS analyses. Dry matter yield was to some extent genetically correlated with quality traits. The correlations did, however, vary in sign and size between populations. It has been concluded that some of the unfavorable correlations are probably not strong enough to prevent relatively high responses for combinations of high yield and quality without great changes in earliness. High genotypic correlations between yield in different cuts and between visual value scores at the stage of panicle emergence and yield in different cuts and in total, indicate that simplifications of yield measurements can be made without losing too much of selection response. Non‐additive gene effects are strongly indicated for productivity characters.