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Developing Better Forages for the South¹

University of Georgia², Tifton 31793

Abstract

Forages for the South must be adapted to the soil and the climate. The acidic, infertile soils can, and usually must, be improved by adding lime and fertilizer. The rainfall (1,100+ mm/yr) and the temperature generally favor the growth of many forage species. But the occasional droughts and freezes well below 0 C limit the number that can be considered dependable. The best of these, chosen with the help of animal scientists and others, can be improved by plant breeding. Increasing their cold and drought tolerance and their pest resistance will make them more dependable. In creasing yield and efficiency in the use of all growth factors will cut production costs. Improving quality (digestibility, intake and animal utilization) of a forage will increase the daily performance of the livestock consuming it and add to their owner's profit. Efficient plant breeding requires a knowledge of the mode of reproduction of a species and a good collection of its diverse germplasm. Commercial vegetative propagation (used for the bermudagrass hybrids) that only requires the creation of one superior plant, offers many advantages to the plant breeder. Other plant breeding methods used successfully in improving forages and described here include: Mass selection, re current restricted phenotypic selection (RRPS), character transfer, synthetic cultivars, first generation chance hybrids, self incompatibility hybrids, cytoplasmic male-sterile hybrids and apomictic hybrids. Of these, RRPS appears to be the most efficient for many forages. Improved forage cultivars can only reach their full potential when grown where they are adapted and managed properly.

¹ Presented at the Pasture and Forages Symp. entitled "Current Concepts and Future Opportunities in Forage Utilization in the Southeastern United States" at the 77th Annu. Meet. of the Amer. Soc. of Anim. Sci., August 14, 1985. Univ. of Georgia, Athens.

² Plain Exp. Sta.