2007 Trials

bioharvestIn 2007, 13 field studies were designed to address several aspects of the our breeding and genetics programs.

Trial WQSLAX involved new inbred lines from the most recent cycles of WQS and other promising silage germplasm.

As in past years, the Germplasm Enhancement of Maize (GEM) program has provided our program promising breeding populations from Latin America. GEM lines appear in three of our silage trials, GEM244, CUBA164, and BR52051.

We evaluated progress from four cycles of selection in WQS on both a stover (WQSEVAL-ST) and whole-plant (WQSEVAL-WP) basis.

In trial STOVEREVAL, the stover of recently released and experimental lines inbred lines was evaluated for fiber compostion and digestibility.

A new research effort started in 2005 was dedicated to determining the most appropriate germplasm for use as fermentable feedstocks for enery production. WQS and IBM germplasm was the focus for this effort in which we we evaluated corn stover remaining in the field after grain harvest. The germplasm appeared in trials WQSEVAL-BIOFEED, IBMEVAL, and IBM604. Tiller formation and plant morpholgy were the focus of trails IBMTILLEVAL and GRASSYEVAL.

Most of the trials also included numerous checks and experimental germplasm used by the silage breeding program and the UW Corn Extension Program program directed by J.G. Lauer.

Trial Description
Yield summaries available for:
WQSLAX Evaluation of 15 inbred lines from WQS C2 and 5 inbred lines from LAX X B102 crossed to LH244 and LH332.
GEM244 Evaluation of 39 new GEM lines derived from AR17056, DK212T, FS8B(T), SCRO1, and CHO5015 crossed to LH244.
CUBA164 Evaluation of 24 GEM lines derived from CUBA164:S2012 and CHI755:S1911b crossed to LH279, LH287, and W604S.
BR52051 Evaluation of 39 GEM lines derived from BR52051, SCRO1, and CHO5015 crossed to LH244 and LH332.
WQSEVAL-WP Evaluation of progress from four cycles of selection in WQS. Focus of this trial is whole-plant yield and quality.
WQSEVAL-ST Evaluation of progress from four cycles of selection in WQS. Focus of this trial is stover yield and quality.
WQSEVAL-BIOFEED Similar to other WQSEVAL trials except that this trial will evaluate fermentable energy production from corn stover remaining in the field after grain havest.
IBMEVAL Biofeedstock evaluation of 202 IBM lines per se and 133 IBM lines crossed to W604S. The IBM germplasm will facilitate QTL detection. A publication summarizing the results from this evaluation was generated.