Evaluation of Herbage Yield, Diversity and Quality of Some Accessions of Elymus hispidus Under Dry Farming Conditions in Kermanshah Province

In order to compare the yield and herbage quality, 11 accessions of Elymus hispidus were surveyed in random complete block design under dry farming conditions, with three replications. Some morphological and chemical traits of each accession were measured. The highest value of genetic coefficient of variation and broadsense heritability was obtained for triats of number of shoot on bush, plant height and flag leaf length while the lowest value was observed for traits of acid detergent fiber and crude protein. Triats of flag leaf length, number of shoot on bush and forage yield showed the most environmental coefficient of variation. The positive correlation with forage yield was obsrved for triats of plant height, internode length, flag leaf length and acid detergent fiber at 5% level and for triat of ashes at 5% level. Crude protein and water solution carbohydrate indicated negative correlation with forage yield at 5% and 1% levels, respectively. The results of correlation between traits were verified by biplot of the first two components from principal component analysis with expression of 66.32 percent of the variation in the data structure. Among accessions studied was significant variation for morphological traits. The obtained results of comparing mean of traits showed that the accessions including 890-5 and 890-6 were better than the others for most of the morphological and chemical traits especially herbage yield and as the suitable genetic material have introduced for rangeland restoration or breeding programs under dryland conditions in Kermanshah province. The results of comparing mean were confirmed by cluster analysis and principal components analysis.