BARLEY HORDEUM VULGARE (L) AS A DUAL PURPOSE CROP HAVING GOOD FODDER QUALITY
R. S. SOHU*, RUCHIKA BHARDWAJ AND MEENAKSHI GOYAL
Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Punjab Agricultural University,
Ludhiana-141 004 (Punjab), India
*(e-mail : rssohu@rediffmail.com)
(Received 02 Jaunary 2017; Accepted 16 June 2017)
SUMMARY
New barley varieties were evaluated for their suitability as a fodder as well as grain crop during rabi 2015. Different varieties behave differently for fodder and grain yield and fodder quality. Some varieties are good fodder and grain yielder but have low crude protein (CP) and in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD), while others have good fodder quality traits but less yielder. The present data showed that good dual purpose varieties of barley could give 166-185 q/ha green fodder with 61-67 q/ha grain yield. Among the barley varieties evaluated, it was found that two varieties viz., RD 2035 and RD 2552 were very good dual purpose varieties with good fodder quality. Among these two, RD 2035 gave 185.6 q/ha green fodder yield with 21.12 q/ha dry matter yield and 67.18 q/ha grain yield. The fodder of this variety had 12.0 per cent crude protein with 62.4 per cent in vitro dry matter digestibility and also had low acid detergent fibre (ADF) and neutral detergent fibre (NDF) values. Significant and positive correlation of green fodder yield was observed with dry matter yield and plant height. Similarly, significant correlation was observed between crude protein and in vitro dry matter digestibility, and ADF and NDF. The grain yield was seemed to be positively correlated with 1000- grain weight but negatively associated with green fodder yield (GFY) and dry matter yield (DMY).
Key words: Dual purpose barley, fodder yield and quality, grain yield, correlation studies