Section for Low Ear Moisture in Corn, Using a Hand‐Held Meter

Abstract

A rapid, effective method for identifying inbred lines of corn ( Zea mays L.) that produce hybrids with a low grain‐moisture content at harvest would be helpful to corn breeders. We evaluated use of a hand‐held moisture meter to select for low ear‐moisture content in a set of St plants that had similar pollination dates. A set of 30 lines, derived from plants classified as low‐, medium‐, and high‐moisture 30 d after pollination, was identified. The lines were evaluated for moisture content in a randomized complete‐block experiment. Testcrosses of the lines to two testers were evaluated for yield and harvest moisture at five locations in 1 yr. The moisture meter produced estimates of moisture content that correlated well in 2 yr ( r 2 = 0.85 and 0.82) with estimates obtained by the oven method. Lines derived from ears selected for low moisture with the meter had lower moisture at harvest than lines from high‐moisture ears. Hybrids of low‐moisture lines were lower in harvest moisture than hybrids of high‐moisture lines but were similar in grain yield. The moisture meter should enable corn breeders to select for low harvest moisture in segregating populations.