Recent literature has identified a correlation between fall moisture and seed production in a key grass species, plains rough fescue (Festuca hallii), of the Northern Great Plains. A field experiment was established at the Semiarid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre, Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada to examine this possible correlation. The results (biomass and seed yield) reported here are from 2014, first year of the study of 10 populations of 2 year old plants that were irrigated and not. The populations originate from across the Canadian Prairies. Populations responded quite differently, from no difference to some preferring no irrigation to others responding to irrigation, although not statistically significant (?=0.05). The differences were more striking for seed yield compared to biomass yield. These results are only a single year's results and need additional years to verify if there is an actual difference. But this initial dataset does indicate varying response to environmental conditions possibly as an indicator of originating site adaptation. Thus further complicating development of general agronomic practices for improved seed and biomass yield improvement for this species.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.