Registration of ‘Performer’ Switchgrass

Journal of Plant Registrations, Vol. 2, No. 1, January 2008 29 ‘Performer’ switchgrass [Panicum virgatum L.] (Reg. No. CV-247, PI 644818) was cooperatively developed as a cultivar by the USDA-Agricultural Research Service and the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC and released on 1 November 2006. Incorporation and preservation of the unique switchgrass germplasm adapted to the Southeastern U.S. is important in the development of a new cultivar with improved nutritive value and, hence, forage quality (i.e., intake and digestion). Generally, forage quality and dry matter yield are negatively associated. The development of this new cultivar retained acceptable dry matter yield, but with improved nutritive value over existing cultivars, and over other adapted warmseason grasses, which is valuable to the ruminant industry. Performer was developed from three cycles of selection occurring under natural environmental conditions. The original source population (Cycle 0) consisted of a selected group of 161 lowland form switchgrass plants, representing 11 different germplasm sources. The 11 germplasm sources, with cultivar or location of origin in parentheses, were 63–85 (Pangburn), 63–90 (Kanlow), 63–78 (SC 56–23), 63–69 (Pinehurst, NC), 63–79 (Wilmington, NC), 63–75 (Bn-11361), 63–73 (F-687, Am-181, Stuart), 63–76 (Bn-11362), 63–72 (F-286, Am-180, Wahass, O.), 63–70 (Pinehurst, NC), and 63–71 (Am-175, Jasper County, SC). The 161 plants were evaluated for dry matter yield and in vitro dry matter digestion (IVDMD). A total of 31 plants were selected from this group on the basis of the arithmetic product of forage yield and IVDMD. These plants, in addition to two other plants that were selected to maintain their germplasm [accession 63–87 (Pangburn)], were allowed to cross-pollinate at random, with the resulting progeny bulked in equal amounts across clones to represent Cycle 1. Registration of ‘Performer’ Switchgrass