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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Madison, Wisconsin » U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center » Dairy Forage Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #413915
Research Project: Developing Sustainable Forage and Cover Crop Systems for Dairy Farms

Location: Dairy Forage Research

Title: Building a cereal rye breeding program for cover crop use

Author
item Kissing Kucek, Lisa
item MOORE, VIRGINIA - Cornell University
item LEON-GONZALEZ, R. - North Carolina State University
item REBERG-HORTON, CHRIS - North Carolina State University

Submitted to: North American Alfalfa Improvement Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/4/2024
Publication Date: 7/9/2024
Citation: Kucek, L.K., Moore, V.M., Leon-Gonzalez, R., Reberg-Horton, C. 2024. Building a cereal rye breeding program for cover crop use. North American Alfalfa Improvement Conference. June 24-26, 2024.

Interpretive Summary: Cereal rye is becoming a major crop in the United States. Although it may be grown on similar amounts of land to spring wheat, cereal rye has few varieties available to farmers. The varieties that are available are not well suited to the primary uses of preventing soil erosion, scavenging nitrogen, and providing animal feed. The Cover Crop Breeding Network has begun to select cereal rye for these needs. Primary traits of interest include the ability to grow and survive dry and cold conditions, fast early plant growth, the ability to suppress weeds, and produce high quality feed for animals. Our nationwide breeding program is selecting cereal rye to meet different types of farms that desire either early or late flowering rye. We are also collecting data to understand which varieties perform best in different regions of the United States.

Technical Abstract: Cereal rye is becoming a major crop in the United States. Although cereal rye acreage may rival that of spring wheat (USDA 2022), rye has received little attention from public breeding programs. Many cover crop growers are still planting variety not stated seed. The Cover Crop Breeding Network has begun to select cereal rye for the needs of cover crop and forage producers. Primary traits of interest include emergence and survival in cold and dry conditions, early vigor, allelopathy, high biomass, forage quality, maturity timing, and seed yield. Our nationwide breeding program is divergently selecting cereal rye for high and low allelopathy and early and late maturity to meet different cropping system niches. We are collecting data to understand the influence of genotype by environment interactions and regions of adaptation for biomass, vigor, forage quality, and seed yield.