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Submitted to: International Grasslands Congress
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 6/1/2005 Publication Date: 6/28/2005 Citation: Devine, T.E. 2005. Breeding and evaluation of forage soybeans [abstract]. In: XX International Grasslands Congress, June 26-July 1, 2005. Dublin, Ireland. Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: Introduction. The principal use of soybean in the US in the early 1900 was as livestock forage. Soybeans are less expensive to establish than small seeded perennial legume forages and can provide legume protein after winter killing of perennial legumes. Soybean can improve production distribution by vigorous growth during the hot summer season when traditional perennial legumes are less productive. Materials and methods. Three soybean cultivars were bred for forage production: Donegal, Derry, and Tyrone. At Orange, VA Tyrone and the grain type cultivar Hutcheson were interplanted with pearl millet and sorghum and tested for height and forage yield. At Ames, IA Derry and Donegal were tested with Hutcheson in 4 replications for yield and forage quality (Darmosarkoro, 2001). Results. At Orange, VA the forage soybean cultivar grew taller than Hutcheson and was more competitive in the canopy with pearl millet than Hutcheson, Table 1. All soybeans were overgrown by the sorghum. At Ames, IA the forage lines showed a yield advantage over Hutcheson Table 2. For the earlier maturing cultivars Donegal and Hutcheson crude protein percentage declined in mid season and increase toward the end. IVDMD decreased over the growing season for all cultivars. Conclusions. The forage cultivars grew significantly taller than conventional grain-type soybean cultivars suggesting their ability to better compete in the sward with other tall growing species such as pearl millet. Yields of the forage soybeans were higher than yields of conventional grain cultivars. |
