Breeding Potential of Elite Maize Landraces to Improve Forage Yield and Quality of Two Heterotic Patterns

Abstract

C orn silage represents excellent feed with high energy, dry matter yield, and quality for dairy and meat production that can be stored and used when forage production is low to maintain a relatively constant amount of forage along the year. Since the whole plant is harvested, ear and stover contribute to the final forage dry matter yield. Therefore, both components must be considered in a corn silage breeding program. In many temperate maize production regions, the recommended genotypes for silage have tended to be commercial hybrids selected just for grain production that additionally showed high forage yield. Few maize breeding programs develop hybrids specifically bred for silage production as a primary goal.

<b>Breeding potential of S4 maize lines in topcrosses for agronomic and forage traits

“…Generally, Brazilian maize breeding programs have placed little emphasis on the development of specific hybrids for silage purposes; thus, the hybrids recommended for silage are usually the same as those for grain production (Gomes, Von Pinho, Ramalho, Ferreira, & Brito, 2004). The genetic basis of maize germplasm should be explored to improve the traits related to forage yield and quality (Nass & Coors, 2003;Incognito, Eyhérabide, Bertoia, & López, 2013).…”

Constitution of Composite Cross Maize (Zea mays L.) Populations Selected for the Semi-Arid Environment of South Madagascar

“…The achieved intra-specific genetic variability may act as a mechanism for the wider adaptation of these plants, thereby stabilizing their production [65][66][67][68]. These populations may suffer from low yields compared to improved hybrid and elite varieties [67], but also using lines selected from those varieties in the parental cluster may improve some yield traits, thereby increasing their agronomic performance and maintaining a high genetic diversity level [35,69]. For these reasons, we also selected and used inbred lines from modern hybrid genotypes as parental lines to constitute our populations.…”

Breeding Potential of Exotic Maize Populations to Improve an Elite Chinese Hybrid

“…More recently, Yong et al (2011) used the estimator Lpl μ′ to evaluate three CIMMYT populations as potential sources of favorable alleles for improving grain yield, ear length, and kernel length that are lacking in the target hybrid, W9706 × Ji853, which represents the Lancaster × Sipingtou heterotic pattern of northeastern China. Incognito et al (2013) identified an Argentine landrace as the best source of favorable alleles for forage yield and quality for improving two target hybrids representing two heterotic patterns, the Stiff Stalk Synthetic × Lancaster Sure Crop (B73 × Mo17) and Stiff Stalk Synthetic × Argentine Orange Flint (B73 × LP122‐2), based on evaluation of the estimators Lpl μ′, NI, PTC, and UBND.…”