Cultivar Release, Pegah, A New Forage Sorghum Cultivar

Pegah is a new forage sorghum cultivar, improved in Iran. It is derived from progenies of a cross made between Early orange (Farian) and LFS56 (Local selected germ[lasm) cultivars. Its improvement took 15 years from crossing up to releazing time. All selections and evaluations were made in SPII and its associated research centers in Iran. Pegah is a pure line variety and its seed production is the same as other self fertilization crops. Green fodder and dry matter yield of pegah in 6 locations for three years were 128.38 and 23.52 tha-1 respectively which were 42.28% and 46.82% higher than those of check cultivar Speed feed. Protein contents of Pegah cultivar is 12%. Maximum green fodder and dry matter of pegah cultivar were obtained in planting densities of 208 and 287 thousand plants per hectare. As an example in Karaj at 208 thousand plants per hectare, it produced 156.39 and 29.32 tha-1 green fodder and dry matter, respectively. As an other aspect, Pegah cultivar has a high contents of sugar in stem, and it is a sweet sorghum cultivar too.