103(3)_str34

 

ISSN 1392-3196 / e-ISSN 2335-8947
Zemdirbyste-Agriculture, vol. 103, No. 3 (2016), p. 267–272
DOI  10.13080/z-a.2016.103.034

The variation of agronomic traits associated with breeding progress in winter barley cultivars

Milan MIROSAVLJEVIĆ, Vojislava MOMČILOVIĆ, Novo PRŽULJ, Nikola HRISTOV, Vladimir AĆIN, Petar ČANAK, Srbislav DENČIĆ

Abstract

In the 20th century, grain yield of winter barley has increased due to advances in both breeding and crop management practices. Knowledge about the association of agronomic traits with genetic gains in yield potential is necessary to improve future breeding programs. Therefore, we studied the variation in grain yield, spike length, heading date, thousand grain weight, hectolitre mass and plant height of two-rowed winter barley cultivars that were released between 1977 and 2010, in a 2-year field trial. Our results showed that most of the analyzed traits were significantly affected by the cultivar, year and cultivar-by-year interaction. The present study showed that grain yield was positively correlated with the year of release. The average rate of grain yield increase in Serbia was 46 kg ha-1 per year. Further, grain yield was negatively correlated with plant height and heading date. Plant height and hectolitre mass of modern cultivars showed a significant declining trend, from the oldest to the newest cultivars. An improved understanding of the changes in agronomic traits over the last 40 years of barley breeding will help to identify targets for further breeding progress and improve the genetic potential of barley.

Key words: agronomic traits, breeding, cultivars, grain yield, Hordeum vulgare.

Full text: 103_3_str34.pdf