Evaluation of Some Forage Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) genotypes for Some Quality and Agronomic Traits

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at two environments (Shambat 2005 and Sennar 2006) to investigate the agronomic and quality performance at different growth stages and plant parts using 12 forage sorghum genotypes representing the major local stocks of forage sorghum in the Sudan. The treatments were arranged in RCBD with the growth stage imposed on genotype as split in time and the plant part was further splited on growth stage. Agronomic and quality traits studied included: Green and dry matter yields, days to flowering, plant height, crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber .((ADF), ash and ether extract (EE Significant differences were detected among genotypes in forage yield and plant height. Interaction of genotype with environment was significant for both characters pointing to the differential performance of .genotypes across environment The recommended cultivar (Kambal) ranked first in GMY; however, it was not significantly different from that of the check Abu Sab'in. The genotypes ANK43 from Ankolib and SG32-2A from Sudan .Grass significantly outyielded their respective parental populations Significant differences among genotypes were detected for NDF but not for CP, ADF, EE, and ASH. Differences between growth stages were significant for ADF, NDF and CP. Differences between plant parts were significant for ADF, CP and ASH. The interaction of growth stage .with plant part was significant for all traits other than ADF The CP at boot stage was significantly higher than that obtained at dough stage. The NDF and ADF percentages were significantly lower at boot than dough stage. CP and Ash in the leaf were significantly higher than those in the stem. ADF percentage in the leaf was x .significantly lower than that in the stem The association study revealed that correlation of forage yield with crude protein was significantly negative, with ADF was significantly positive and with NDF was also positive but insignificant. Correlation of crude protein with NDF was significantly negative and .with ADF, EE Ash was also negative but insignificant The forage yield, but not quality attributes of the selected lines has been improved over their parental population; this has been .attributed to the adverse association between forage yield and CP The results obtained in this study suggest that harvesting at boot .stage will maximize the benefits gained from forage sorghum