BREEDING FOR YIELD AND NUTRITIVE-VALUE IN FORAGE MAIZE - AN EASY CRITERION FOR STOVER QUALITY, AND GENETIC-ANALYSIS OF LANCASTER VARIETY

The maize populations BS13 (S2) C4 and Lancaster are compared with respect to their potential as forage maize. In light of the preliminary results, the Lancaster population was chosen for a more thorough study. The determination of NDF gave a sufficiently precise estimate of the stover digestibility within our experimental conditions. The heritability of stover and grain production was 0.59 and 0.30, respectively, whilst that of the stover NDF was 0.32. The additive genetic correlation between NDF and stover production, possibly attributable to the architecture of the plant, favours the selection of genotypes that produce more and better forage.