Research Objective
To improve the nitrogen (N) contribution of pulses in the cropping rotation by assessing the N budget of faba bean; to measure the biomass and nitrogen content of a range of faba bean genotypes and cultivars; to assess the N fixation ability of faba bean genotypes by shoot N metabolism under typical dryland prairie conditions and controlled stress conditions; to develop a ureide- and specific amino-acid screening technique to economically screen for high N fixation.
The predictive methods developed were able to predict shoot biomass and total nitrogen (N) content of the shoot to about 70% accuracy based on the stem data from which they were generated, and detect half of the top 5 ranked genotypes. Such methods can allow for the screening for higher shoot growth, greater N acquisition, and greater amounts of N fixed by using a stem fraction in early reproductive growth, without requiring reference plots.