Wheat grouping using infrared sensors and forage fractions in three samplings

Abstract

Wheat is an important crop for human food and an extraordinary forage alternative for livestock. In Mexico, it is not cultivated specifically for that purpose, but work is being done on the generation of genotypes for forage purposes using emerging technology. Twenty-two wheat genotypes and three controls of another species were evaluated in four environments during the autumn-winter cycles 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 by means of a randomized complete block design with three repetitions, in order to group genotypes through three samplings (at 75, 90 and 105 days after sowing) and estimate the association between variables. With the means of the genotypes across the environments, principal component and cluster analyses were performed for each sampling. The results of the analysis of variance justified studying the samplings separately. Up to five groups were retained in each sampling, with groups of wheats with dry forage yields equal to or greater than that of oats. In early stages, there was a greater proportion of leaves, which decreased as the phenological stage progressed, while the fraction of spikes increased, with a slight decrease in the fraction of stems. There are groups of forage wheats that may represent an option to replace oats, with the wheats AN-229-09, AN-241-13, AN-268-99, AN-217-09 and AN-263-99 standing out. A positive association between NDVI, FSH and COB was detected, which lasted through the samplings, suggesting that the use of infrared sensors can be used in the estimation of dry leaf matter.