Evaluation of herbage yield and quality in some accessions of Agropyron trichophorum under dry land farming conditions in Kermanshah Province

In order to compare the yield and herbage quality, 24 accessions of Agropyron trichophorum were surveyed under dry land farming conditions, in a random complete block design with three replications. Some morphological traits and chemical traits of each accession were recorded. The highest value of genetic coefficient of variation and broadsense heritability was obtained for triats of flag leaf length, number of shoot per plant and dry weight and the lowest value was observed for traits of acid detergent fiber and digestibility dry mates. Triats of flag leaf length, spike length, number of shoot per plant, forage yield and water soluble carbohydrate had more environmental coefficient of variation. A positive correlation with forage yield was abserved for triats of plant height, flag leaf length and internode length at 1% level and for water soluble carbohydrate and ashe at 5% level. Crude protein indicated negative correlation with forage yield at 5% level. Significant variation of morphological traits was observed among the studied accessions. The results of mean classification of the traits showed that the accessions including 10, 24, 23, 17 and 5 were better than the others for herbage yield. In view point of chemical traits the accessions 24 and 10 were preferable to others. Also the results of cluster analysis and discriminant function analysis classified the accessions numbers 10 and 24 in one group. Thus two accessions of 24 (Gorgan) and 10 (Semirom) were superior according to the results of the study done on the parameters under dryland conditions in Kermanshah province. Therefore, they could be regarded as the suitable genetic material for rangeland restoration or breeding programs.