Optimal regimes of selection for grain yield and harvest index in spring wheat

Summary Alternative strategies of multi-site testing of advanced lines in the northern wheat belt of New South Wales have been evaluated, using genetic parameters for large plot grain yield and hill plot harvest index estimated from dryland and irrigated trials at regional sites during 1975–1981. The average pairwise genetic correlation of large plot grain yields recorded at different sites within years was 0.45±.03, with a mean repeatability within trials of 0.56±.05. Harvest index measured in 20-grain hill plots in 1978 showe genetic correlations of 0.98±.08 with plot yield at the same site, and 0.39±0.06 with plot yield assessed at other sites in the same year.The genetic correlation between harvest index in hill plots and total biological yield in large plots at the same site was 0.84±.13, the relationship showing no evidence of curvilinearity. Selection for harvest index in hill plots is therefore expected to lead to an increase in biological yield as well as grain yield in the breeding populations studied. Quantitative genetic theory suggests that the response to selection for grain yield can be increased by approximately 40% with an initial screening using hill plot harvest index at three sites instead of one, and reallocation of resources in the first stage of large plot yield assessment to include 6–8 sites, rather than dryland and irrigated trials at a single location.