Preedicting Seed and Forage Yields of Alfalfa Open Pollinated Progenies

Abstract

Selecting traits measured in North Central Region nurseries has contributed to agronomically superior cultivars for forage production in the region, but not all of them have the genetic capacity for high seed yield in the western states. Seeds of such cultivars are also more expensive than more prolific cultivars, but both cost efficiency and traits for increased forage and seed yields are desired. That will be possible only if such traits are highly heritable and also are genetically correlated with yield attributes. For those reasons experiments were initiated in 1966 to determine: (a) whether associations between seed production potential and morphological or physiological plant characteristics exist, and (b) if such associations can be used to identify plants with both forage and seed production potentials