POTENTIAL PRODUCTIVITY, FORAGE QUALITY AND RELATIVE ECONOMICS OF MULTI-CUT SORGHUM GENOTYPES UNDER DIFFERENT FERTILIZER RATES
SATPAL*, J. TOKAS, B. S. DUHAN, S. K. PAHUJA AND S. RAVI KUMAR
Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding
CCS Haryana Agricultural University,
Hisar-125 004 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail: satpal.fpj@gmail.com)
(Received : 10 March 2017; Accepted : 18 April 2017)
SUMMARY
A two-factor field experiment consisting of five multi-cut forage cultivars and three fertilizer levels was conducted at Forage Section Research Farm, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar (Haryana), India during kharif 2015. Sorghum cultivars were test hybrid SPH 1700 and variety SPV 2242, which were compared with check hybrids CSH 20MF, CSH 24MF and check variety SSG 59-3. The fertilizer levels were 50, 75 and 100 per cent recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF), which had a combination of nitrogen (80 kg)+phosphorus (40 kg)+potassium (40 kg) per hectare. The forage hybrid SPH 1700 recorded maximum total green fodder (690.2 q/ha) which was at par with SPV 2242 (669.9 q/ ha) but significantly superior over the checks CSH 20MF, CSH 24MF and SSG 59-3. Forage variety SPV 2242 recorded maximum total dry matter (119.1 q/ha), which was at par with rest of the genotypes except CSH 24MF.The maximum B : C ratio (2.11) was derived with hybrid SPH 1700. The crop fertilized with 100 RDF recorded significantly higher total green and dry fodder yield over the application of 50 and 75 per cent RDF. The magnitude of the increase with RDF was 33.95 and 12.84 per cent in total green fodder; and 55.31 and 21.14 per cent in total dry fodder yield over 50 and 75 per cent RDF, respectively. The maximum B : C ratio was derived with the application of 100 per cent RDF (2.16). Conclusively, among genotypes SPH 1700 and SPV 2242 performed better and among fertilizer levels, application of 100 per cent RDF was the most beneficial practice.
Key words: Multi-cut forage sorghum, fodder yield, fertilizer levels, hydro cyanic acid (HCN), crude protein content and in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD)