Identification of Creeping Foxtail Germplasm with High Dry Matter Yield and Nutritive Value

While creeping foxtail ( Alopecurus arundinaceus Poir.) is widely grown in wet meadows and pastures throughout temperate regions of the United States and world, only the cultivars ‘Garrison’ and ‘Retain’ have been developed in the United States. These cultivars represent a narrow genetic base and substantial improvement of creeping foxtail may be realized by incorporating additional germplasm resources into a cultivar development program. The study described herein compared the agronomic and nutritive value of 47 creeping foxtail accessions to that of Garrison and Retain in a field study conducted over two production years at a site near Richmond, UT. The effect of accessions was separated into the component due to the region of origin and the component due to the accession per se. Differences were limited among region of origin, although significant differences occurred for dry matter yield and in vitro true digestibility. The U.S. cultivars had the numerically highest dry matter yield (116 g plot −1 ) and the Mongolian accessions (945 g kg −1 ) had higher in vitro true digestibility than the other regions. Differences among the individual accessions occurred for all traits except rhizome spread. A group of seven accessions from Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, and Turkey exhibited high dry matter yield and neutral detergent fiber digestibility. These accessions could be combined with the cultivar Garrison to develop a broad base population for further creeping foxtail improvement and cultivar development.