ARS | Publication request: Oregon Seed Production Potential of Grass Cultivars Developed in Japan

Submitted to: Agronomy Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: June 23, 1998
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: Over 90% of the temperate grass seed used in Japan is produced in the Pacific Northwest USA, primarily in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Japanese grass cultivars are developed in Japan for forage purposes but often lack seed yield ability because selection was not also done in seed producing regions. For at least the past 25 years, grass breeding programs in Oregon have been developing grass cultivars with high seed yields. This study compared seed yields of Japanese developed cultivars with recently developed U. S. cultivars of annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.), perennial ryegrass (L. perenne L.), tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.), and orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.). Seed yield trials were conducted for three years near Aurora (Willamette silt loam, a mesic Pachic Ultic Argixeroll) and Corvallis, (Woodburn silt loam, a mesic Aquultic Argixeroll) Oregon. Japanese developed cultivars were clearly at a seed yield disadvantage in all four species. For example, the average seed yield of two U. S. annual ryegrass cultivars, 2040 kg ha**-1, was a 25% increase over the average of six Japanese cultivars, 1524 kg ha**-1. Greater effort is needed to genetically improve seed yield potential of Japanese developed grass cultivars that will be grown for seed outside of Japan.