Breeding and agronomic performance of new smooth bromegrass cultivar Kruševački 46 (K-46)

Smooth bromegrass (Bromus inermis Leyss.) is rhizomatous perennial forage grass species spread all over Serbia, mostly beside the roads and at the edges of semi-xerophylous or xerophylous natural grasslands. Stabile and high forage yield, classify Smooth bromegrass in a group of forage grasses suitable for mixtures composing for drought conditions and poor soils in agro-ecological conditions of Serbia. It can be used traditionally for hay production, but also in quality mixtures with legumes for silage or haylage production. Cultivar K-46 is created by multiple phenotypic recurrent selection of populations collected across central Serbia. The main breeding goal was developing of genotypes of Bromus inermis with improved yield and chemical composition of dry matter. Since this grass species generally have been characterised with a lot of large but indelicate leaves, improvement of its biomass quality requires breeding of leaf parameters (size, number, position, etc.). In plot trial on three locations in two years period (2015 and 2016) cultivar K-46 reached average DMY of 6400 kg ha-1. The average height of plants at the moment of cutting was 81.6 cm. Crude protein content was 11.61 g kg-1 of dry matter in the first cut and 13.51 g kg-1 in the second cut, which represents the good quality of grass biomass. New cultivar K-46, which is registered in December 2017, is suitable for mixtures composing for long-lasting and durable grasslands on light, marginal and dry soils. It stabilises land and produces enough amount of quality herbage which can be used with legumes species as complete forage meal for ruminants. It is adapted for cutting and tolerates dry, poor and eroded soils, therefore it shows best results on grasslands on hilly mountainous areas.