EFFECT OF CUTTING MANAGEMENT AND PHOSPHORUS LEVELS ON GROWTH, FORAGE AND SEED YIELD OF MULTICUT OAT (AVENA SATIVA L.)
MONIKA, R. S. SHEORAN*, KARMAL SINGH AND SATPAL
Department of Agronomy
CCS Haryana Agricultural University,
Hisar-125 004 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail : sheoranrs@gmail.com)
(Received : 10 May 2018; Accepted : 8 June 2018)
SUMMARY
The field experiment was conducted during the rabi season of 2016-17 at the Forage Research Farm of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar with the objective to study the effect of cutting management and phosphorus fertilization on forage and seed productionof multicut oat. Treatment combinations comprised of eight cutting management treatments i.e. C1 (Seed to Seed), C2 (Fodder at 50% flowering), C3 (Fodder 60 DAS- Seed), C4 (Fodder 70 DAS- Seed), C5 (Fodder at 80 DAS- Seed), C6 (Fodder 60 DAS- Fodder at 50% flowering), C7 (Fodder at 70 DAS- Fodder at 50% flowering), C8 (Fodder 80 DAS- Fodder at 50% flowering) and four levels of phosphorus i.e. 0, 20, 40 and 60 kg P2O5/ha. The experiment was laid out in split plot design and replicated thrice. The soil of the experimental field low in available nitrogen (161 kg N/ha), medium in available phosphorus (12 kg/ha) and available potassium(252 kg/ha, slightly alkaline in reaction (pH 7.8). The results indicated that the highest green fodder and dry matter yield was obtained when only one cut of fodder was taken at 50% flowering stage and it was statistically at par for green fodder yield with treatment where first cut for fodder was taken at 80 DAS and second cut at 50% flowering stage. Harvesting of fodder at 80 DAS gave significantly higher forage yield and seed yield than the harvesting at 60 or 70 DAS. Contrary to this, the straw yield and biological yield were significantly higher in the treatment when the crop was raised purely for seed purpose. Under dual system, delay in first cut i.e. from 60 to 80 DAS resulted in a significant increase in fodder and seed yield over the earlier cuttings. Every incremental dose of applied phosphorus upto 40 kg P2O5/ha resulted in a significant improvement in forage, seed and straw yield over the lower doses.
Key words:Oat, cutting management, Phosphorus fertilization, fodder yield, seed yield