Evaluation of maize hybrids for grain and fodder purpose

Total forty-eight cross combinations were evaluated along with five checks for various morphological and biochemical traits associated with green fodder quality and yield during Kharif, 2015 at Experimental Farm, ICAR-IIMR, Ludhiana. Based on the higher mean green fodder yield, eight promising hybrids were selected and observations were recorded for several fodder quality traits namely leaves/plant, leaf length, leaf width, stem girth, dry fodder yield, grain yield, crude protein, acid detergent fiber and neutral detergent fiber. The observations were compared with one fodder check, J1006. The results of analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant differences among treatments for green fodder yield, grain yield, leaves/plant, leaf length, leaf width, crude protein, acid detergent fiber and neutral detergent fiber. Significant and positive genotypic and phenotypic correlation of green fodder yields were found with all the studied traits except for crude protein. Path analysis revealed that most of the yield components had direct positive effects on green fodder yield except leaves/plant, leaf length and acid detergent fiber. In addition, most traits showed negative indirect effects on green fodder yield except leaf width and dry fodder yield. The grain yield showed high heritability (92%) coupled with high genetic advance (24.67) along with high phenotypic (12.95) and genotypic (12.45) coefficient of variability. The phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variability was higher for most of the traits except stem girth, acid detergent fibre, neutral detergent fibre, green fodder yield and dry fodder yield. Based on the performance of all cross combinations, WNCQPM-10390-1 × DQL-2058-2 P1 showed maximum green and dry fodder yield. In addition, the cross showed comparatively high grain yield, leaves/plant and leaf length.