DIGVIJAY SINGH* AND ALKA CHOUDHARY
Animal Nutrition Group
National Dairy Development Board, Anand-388001 (Gujarat), India
*(e-mail : dsingh@nddb.coop)
(Received : 06 September 2021; Accepted : 28 September 2021)
SUMMARY
An experiment was carried out during two seasons i.e. Zaid 2018 and Kharif 2018 to estimate the potential of 15 popular maize cultivars PMC-6, Narmada Moti, GM-6, African Tall, NK-6850, NK-6668, S-6668+, DKC-9081, P-3396, P-3502, HQPM-4, HQPM-1 PMH-1, PHM-3 and IIMR-1502 at fodder demonstration unit (FDU) of National Dairy Development Board, Anand (Gujarat) for fodder yield, nutrients and silage quality. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design (RBD) with 15 treatments and replicated thrice. The maize crop was grown at 60 cm x 20 cm spacing following recommend agronomic practices in order to maximize biomass yield and fodder quality and harvested at milk to dough stage. Two season’s data were pooled for statistical analysis. National Check fodder maize composite African Tall (38.96 t/ha) statistically at par with PMC-6 (35.05 t/ha), S-6668+ (34.86 t/ha) and NK-6668 (34.10t/ha) recorded highest green fodder yield. African Tall (13.58 t/ha) also recorded highest dry matter yield, but was found statistically at par with PMH-1 (13.14 t/ha), NK-6668 (12.68 t/ha) and PMC-6 (12.53 t/ha) cultivars. Highest digestible dry matter yield was recorded for PMH-1 (7.98 t/ha) however, at par with African Tall (7.20 t/ha) and S-6668+ (7.19 t/ha) cultivars. Significantly higher crude protein yield was recorded in African Tall T (1.19 t/ha) that was found to be statistically at par with PMC-6 (1.06 t/ha), NK-6668 (1.01 t/ha) and S-6668+ (1.00 t/ha) cultivars. Quality parameters in maize silage viz. dry matter, crude protein, ether extract, acid insoluble ash, Brix and pH ranged from 34.20-44.41%, 7.26-9.33%, 0.62-2.77%, 5.30-7.86%, 8.51-11.22% and 3.81-4.45% respectively. PMH-1 (44.41%) recorded highest dry matter. Highest crude protein was observed in P-3396 (9.33%), followed by HQPM-1 (9.13 %), PHM-3 (8.64%) and HQPM-4 (8.61%) in hybrids. Significantly lower pH was recorded in PMC-6 (3.81) but statistically at par with NK-6850 (3.96), AT (3.99), S-6668+ (4.00), NM (4.02), PHM-3 (4.03), DKC-9081 (4.06). N, K, Total digestible nutrients and Total Ash content varied from varied from 1.21-1.49%, 0.92 to 1.44%, 47.90 to 73.76% and 4.25-7.79%, respectively in maize silage.
Key words:Maize, cultivars, fodder, yield, silage, quality, nutrients, uptake