Using plant breeding and genetics to overcome the incidence of grass tetany

Sleper, D.A. and Vogel, K.P. and Asay, K.H. and Mayland, H.F. (1989) Using plant breeding and genetics to overcome the incidence of grass tetany. Journal of Animal Science. 67(12):3456-3462.

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Abstract

Plant breeders developing cultivars to minimize the hazards of grass tetany are
concentrating largely on increasing herbage Mg concentrations in cool-season (C3) grasses.
Significant genetic variation has been found for Mg, Ca and K concentrations within C3
grass species studied to date. For most C3 forage grass species, heritability estimates are
highest for Mg, slightly lower for Ca and lowest for K concentrations. The largest genotype
x environmental interactions are found for K values, whereas small environmental effects
have been observed for Mg and Ca values. No C3 forage grass cultivar has been developed
to date that would eliminate hypomagnesemia. Grass breeders need to develop more
experimental C3 plant populations that have high Mg and Ca concentrations. These
experimental synthetics with genetically altered mineral concentrations need to be fed to
ruminants susceptible to grass tetany to determine whether grass tetany can be eliminated
or reduced. Limited feeding trials using ruminants show that improved animal performance
can be expected when feeding forage grasses bred for higher Mg concentrations.

Item Type:	Article
NWISRL Publication Number:	0692
Subjects:	Irrigated crops > Grass forage > Chemistry Mass Import - autoclassified (may be erroneous)
Depositing User:	Dan Stieneke
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2010 21:53
Last Modified:	03 Jan 2017 20:57
Item ID:	526
URI:	https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/526