Bulgarian triticale cultivars characterized by high yield of silage mass and high stability under contrasting environmental conditions

The diversification of fodder production and the growing demands to provide quality raw materials for feeding farm animals is a prerequisite for continuous improvement of fodder plants. For this reason, plant breeding should be aimed at improving productivity and ensuring high quality. One of the most diverse plants in this regard is triticale. In order to establish the genotypes that provide the highest yield of silage biomass and at the same time are the most stable under contrasting environmental conditions, 12 contemporary Bulgarian winter hexaploid triticale cultivars were studied together with the adopted standards in three different growing periods. The cutting of the genotypes was carried out at milk maturity stage. The obtained results showed that cultivars Doni 52 (4170 kg/da), Avitohol (3865 kg/da) and the standard Kolorit (3768 kg/da) had the highest productivity of silage biomass. Respectively, the standards AD-7291 and Vihren and cultivar Respect had the lowest productivity. It was found out that the drought in the 2019/2020 growing period had an extremely adverse effect on the yield of silage - the average values obtained for this period were only 2322 kg/da. With the highest stability of silage mass yield were cultivars Avitohol, Akord and Lovchanets, and with the lowest - Kolorit, Doni 52 and Borislav. These results show that despite its high productivity, Doni 52 is characterized by unstable silage yields during contrasting growing periods. This makes varieties such as Avitohol significantly more suitable for silage production in different soil and climatic conditions of Bulgaria.