Aadaptation and evaluation of 10 Panicum maximum varieties in southern subtropical areas in Yunnan

The experiment on the adaptation and evaluation of 10 Panicum maximum materials from Brazil and Hainan of China was conducted in southern subtropical areas of Yunnan from 2006 to 2007 for the purpose of establishing forage with high production and quality through selecting proper forage materials. The results were as follows:1)Low temperature and drought were disadvantaged factors for the growth of forages. The over winter rate of all the forages materials was over 94.00%. It showed that these forages could adapt to the condition and be used for the pasture establishment in southern subtropical zone.2)In first year, the forages with high yield of dry matter were P.maximum cv.Tanzania, P.maximum cv.Mombasa, P.maximum cv.Reyan 8, P.maximum cv.MG6 Atlas, P.maximum cv.TD58, P.maximum cv.MG7 Aries, and P.maximum cv. Reyan 9.Their yields were 45.33, 44.47, 42.59, 42.11, 41.281, 38.05, 34.22 thm-2, respectively. There were no significant difference among the trailed forages in terms of dry matter yield .3)The dry matter yield, CP, palatability and resistance were analyzed by gray system theory to evaluate synthetically forages. The results showed that P.maximum cv.Mombasa, P.maximum cv.Tanzania, P.maximum cv.Reyan 8, P.maximum cv.MG6 Atlas, and P.maximum cv.TD58 were top five promising species of high yield, good quality, palatability and resistance performance forages.