There is no known published work on the use of pea (Pisum sativum L.) in mixture with oat (Avena sativa L.) or barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) as a companion crop for the establishment of alfalfa. The objective of this field study was to determine the effect of field pea [Pi*, sativum L. var. arvense (L.) Poiret] on alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) establishment when seeded in mixtures with oat or barley. In addition, forage yield and quality of oat and barley and their mixtures with pea were assessed. Sixteen oat and nine barley genotypes were grown alone and in mixtures with ‘Trapper’ field pea to produce oat, oat‐pea, barley, and barley‐pea companion crops. The companion crops were underseeded with ‘Blazer’ alfalfa. No single oat or barley cultivar or experimental genotype, whether mixed with pea or not, was distinctly superior for forage yield, forage quality, and subsequent alfalfa yield in the year after alfalfa establishment. Pea did not significantly affect alfalfa yield in the establishment year nor in the year after establishment. The addition of pea to oat decreased neutral detergent fiber (NDF) by 7.1 percentage units and increased crude protein (CP) by 4.4 percentage units, while adding pea to barley decreased NDF by 6.2 percentage units and increased CP by 3.0 percentage units. The oat‐pea forage mixture was significantly lower in NDF and significantly higher in CP than barley‐pea forage mixture. Although barley‐pea was highest in forage yield, we concluded that oat‐pea was the best companion crop in this study because it had superior forage quality.
Breeding for erect leaf angle has been suggested as a method for increasing grain yield in cereal crops. This study was designed to investigate the effect of erect leaf angle on grain yield in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). Five cycles of crossing and selection were used to incorporate the erect leaf of C16146 into adapted Minnesota barleys. Subsequently, erect leaf lines from five populations were evaluated in yield trials. In addition, the yield response of erect leaf lines was compared to check cultivars at planting rates of 56, 94, and 132 kg ha−1. No significant difference was found for grain yield between erect leaf lines and check cultivars in three populations. Comparisons of erect and horizontal leaf progeny in two other populations showed no difference in one population; however, the horizontal leaf group was higher yielding in the second. The yield responses of erect and horizontal leaf‐types to the three planting rates were similar, although significant interaction was observed for kernel number and weight, suggesting that canopy type may influence these components. Erect leaf lines had less culm flex, more erect spikes, lower head number, later maturity, and greater lodging resistance than horizontal leaf lines. These associations with the erect leaf trait, which likely resulted from pleiotropy, were confounded with the effect of erect leaves and likely reduced the chances of finding a positive grain yield response. Although the potential of increased lodging resistance and the leaf‐type density interaction for kernel number and weight offer some encouragement for continuing research, results from our study provide little or no evidence that erect leaf angle enhances grain yield in barley.
Few studies have evaluated grain oat for forage yield and quality when harvested before heading, even though this is the current recommended practice when oat is used as a companion crop. The purpose of this research was to assess the amount of genetic variation that existed among grain oat (Avena saliva L.) genotypes for forage yield and forage quality when harvested at early heading (2–3 spikelets emerged from the boot), and to evaluate the relationship between forage yield, forage quality, and nine other agronomic traits. Sixty four elite grain oat genotypes were evaluated in the field on a Piano silt loam (fine‐silty, mixed, mesic Typic Argiudoll) at Arlington, WI, in 1987 to 1989. There was substantial genetic variation for forage yield and forage quality traits as indicated by relatively large genotypic variance (σ2g) components. The σ2g for forage yield was six times as large as the genotype ✕ year interaction variance (σ2gy), while σ2g for acid detergent fiber (ADF) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) were twice as large as the σ2gu. Although year ✕ genotype interaction mean squares were significant for all traits, relatively large σ2g and small σ2gy indicate that selection for forage yield and quality traits should be effective in this germplasm when based on multiple year evaluations. Tall, late genotypes typically had high forage yield and low forage quality. Phenotypic correlations between grain yield and forage yield (−0.29), and between grain yield and forage quality traits (−0.02 to 0.14) were small. Other agronomic traits had stronger associations with forage yield (r = −0.67 to 0.60) than with forage quality (r = −0.38 to 0.45). We concluded that grain genotypes must be evaluated individually before heading for forage quality to accurately assess their forage value.
The value of panicle weight as a selection criterion for improving grain yield in oat (Avena sativa L.) is largely unknown. Panicle weight in oat combines two of the three primary yield components, spikelets per panicle and seed weight, into a single trait that is easy to measure. Three oat populations were evaluated in 1987 through 1989 for the effect of selection for panicle weight on grain yield. Genotypes in each population were identified as having either high, intermediate, or low panicle weight in F5 progeny rows, and progenies were evaluated for panicle weight and grain yield in the F6 and F7 generations. A random group of genotypes in each population served as a control. The high panicle weight group did not differ from the random group for mean panicle weight and mean grain yield in all three populations. However, the low panicle weight group had the lowest mean panicle weight and mean grain yield in two (X4020‐15‐l/‘Ogle’ and ‘Centennial’/‘Coker 81‐32’) of the three populations. The correlation between F5 panicle weight and F6 and F7 grain yield was 0.34, 0.06, and 0.56 for X4020‐15‐l/Ogle, ‘Don’/X3530‐47, and Centennial/Coker 81‐32, respectively. Panicle weight had a high positive phenotypic correlation with spikelets per panicle (0.57 to 0.90), but a high negative correlation with number of panicles per unit area (−0.54 to −0.81). Although high panicle weight was not consistently associated with high grain yield, the fact that low panicle weight identified low grain yielding genotypes in two of three populations suggests that low panicle weight would be useful in a truncation selection approach for grain yield improvement. Visual selection, however, would probably be as effective and require less resources.
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