Performing Department
Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology
Non Technical Summary
Crop production and livestock are two core sectors of Montana's economy. Livestock farmers and ranchers depend on the grasslands for summer grazing, however in winter, alternate feed sources are required, which adds a considerable cost to the livestock operations. Winter cereal forages, especially forage winter wheat is a preferred source of feed for producers in Montana, due to its winter hardiness and ability to survive better under rainfed conditions during winter and early spring. Winter wheat forage varieties have been released by the winter wheat program at Montana State University and are popular among growers. However, it is important to highlight the 12 years timeframe between the two varietal releases. One of the major reasons being lack of resources to support large scale testing of forage breeding lines across multiple locations and the labor intensive forage sampling process. Thus, the objective of this proposal is to initiate early generation evaluations of an increased number of breeding lines to identify potential varieties and coordinated multi-location varietal trials to enable accelerated release of winter wheat forage varieties. Dual purpose forage lines with high forage and seed yield will be selected for varietal release and expected to increased economic benefits for producers. Forage quality is important for acceptance of the variety and the program will strive to improve nutritional quality of forage winter wheat through the extensive early generation evaluations. Winter wheat forage varieties will be released with PVP to help generate income that can support and strengthen the forage breeding program in future.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
5%
Applied
95%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
The major goal of this proposal is to develop dual purpose forage varieties. To achieve this goal, the winter wheat breeding program at Montana State University aims toestablish coordinated multi-location varietal trials across the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station Research Centers. Thesevarietal trials will help to test advanced winter wheat lines (developed from strategic crosses for forage purposes) across locations for their forage yield and quality. It will help to generate data required to select for dual purpose forage varietal selection, which combines forage and seed yield and quality. The phenotypic information thus generated can also support the use the genomic technologies to improve selection efficiencies in the forage winter wheat breeding program.Specific objectives of the project are:1.Develop and release of forage winter wheat variety with improved biomass and quality and adequate grain yield.2.Strengthening the forage winter wheat research and breeding program with the help of income generated by all lines released with PVP.3.Investigate genomic and environmental factors affecting the grain and forage yield and quality to improve decision making abilities.
Project Methods
Methods for the project1. Cultivar developmentWinter wheat forage breeding is ongoing and thus there are a substantial number of advance lines that have already developed through double haploid lines and will continue through the lifecycle of this grant to identify improved lines. Support is being requested for the Forage observation nursery (FO) which is 1st stage forage yield evaluations to be conducted at 3 locations and the coordinated Winter Cereal Forage trial (WCF) to be conducted at 5 locations. As part of the ongoing process of improving genomic knowledge of the breeding populations, all lines in FO will be genotyped.2. Varietal trials:Each year two sets of trials will be conducted, FO and WCF. The purpose of the FO will be a preliminary evaluation of germplasm developed for forage yield, quality and seed yield to select improved lines that will be part of the WCF in the following year. Testing of larger number of lines at early stage will benefit the varietal development process in two ways 1) ability to select dual purpose wheat from a large diverse set of lines 2) understand adaptation of the lines across locations. FO will consist of 100 lines and trial will be set up in augmented design in 3 locations:Bozeman, Moccasin and Havre.Selected best performing 25 lines from FO will be part of the WCF and tested in 5 locations across the state (Bozeman, Moccasin, Havre, Huntley and Kalispell). The trial will be set up in a alpha-lattice design with 4 replications, plot size and seeding rate being determined by each research station based on standard plot sizes. In general, plot sizes are above 15m2 at all locations. Standard management practices will be followed at each research centerto conduct these trials.Data observation: Days to heading, plant height, days to maturity and grain yield will be collected at each testing location. Forage yield and quality will be estimated from each plot, by sampling at soft-dough stage at location. Fresh weight of each sample will be taken immediately after cutting followed by drying till 15% moisture, and dry weight will be noted. Dried samples will be milled using a Wiley cutting mill and homogeneous samples will be collected by sieving through a 2mm mesh. Ground samples will be sent to Foragelab (www.foragelab.com). for near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIR) based analysis for rapid determination of multiple nutrients and characteristics of forage. The following quality parameters will be assessed for each sample:Dry Matter, Moisture, Crude Protein, Acid detergent fiber - crude protein (ADFCP), Neutral detergent fiber-crude protein (NDFCP), Soluble Protein, ADF, NDF, Lignin, Starch, Sugar, Fat, Ash, Calcium (Ca), Phosphorus (P), Magnesium (Mg), and Potassium (K) and pH on ensiled forage. The remaining plot will be harvested at maturity for grain yield.Data analysis: For each trait and location, data will be analyzed using suitable R-packages. Source of variations will be calculated using restricted mixed linear model followed by estimating best linear unbiased estimators at each location and across the location. Least squared difference (LSD) will be calculated to compare checks and varieties. Finally, stability and performance analysis will be conducted using GGE biplot technique.3. Varietal releaseThe varietal release process of MAES requires candidate lines to be evaluated across 12 location years with at least one location providing estimate of winter hardiness and/or drought tolerance. The WCF trials conducted over 3 years will enable identification of potential candidate varieties for release. In year 2, potential breeding lines will be grown for multiplication and purification. In year 3, candidate winter wheat forage variety will also be included in the Intrastate trial conducted by the breeding program across nine locations in Montana to evaluate for winter hardiness, disease resistance and performance will be compared to other winter wheat varieties and breeding lines. Simultaneously breeder seed will be sown with seed originating from multiplication purification nursery. In year 4, this breeder's seed will be provided to MSU Foundation Seed Program to grow and provide seed to certified seed growers.Released varieties will be included in trials for annual field demonstrations to inform producers about the winter wheat forage varieties. Performance data of these varieties will be published in popular publications and distributed through the MSU foundation seed website (https://plantsciences.montana.edu/foundationseed/) to encourage growers acceptance of these varieties.4. Phenomic and genomic analysisThe phenotypic data generated from the FO nursery and WCF trials over the course of the grant will also be utilized in GWAS analysis to identify genomic regions that are associated with forage yield and quality. Identification of haplotypes or genome specific regions may assist with selections of forage varieties. Information can also be utilized for genomic prediction purposes to assist selection in the head row stages where limited seed prevents evaluation of forage traits.5 Data management & PublicationAll data from the FO and WCF trials will be stored in MSU-one drive. Each year, trial results will be compiled and published in the Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology website https://plantsciences.montana.edu/crops/index.html.Results from the phenomic and genomic analysis will be published in peer-reviewed journal.