DEVELOPMENT OF DUAL-PURPOSE WINTER WHEAT FORAGE VARIETIES

The major goal of this proposal is to develop dual purpose forage varieties. To achieve this goal, the winter wheat breeding program at Montana State University aims toestablish coordinated multi-location varietal trials across the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station Research Centers. Thesevarietal trials will help to test advanced winter wheat lines (developed from strategic crosses for forage purposes) across locations for their forage yield and quality. It will help to generate data required to select for dual purpose forage varietal selection, which combines forage and seed yield and quality. The phenotypic information thus generated can also support the use the genomic technologies to improve selection efficiencies in the forage winter wheat breeding program.Specific objectives of the project are:1.Develop and release of forage winter wheat variety with improved biomass and quality and adequate grain yield.2.Strengthening the forage winter wheat research and breeding program with the help of income generated by all lines released with PVP.3.Investigate genomic and environmental factors affecting the grain and forage yield and quality to improve decision making abilities.