RELATIVE PERFORMANCE OF OAT FORAGE VARIETIES FOR SEED PRODUCTION, ECONOMICS AND FODDER YIELD UNDER CENTRAL GUJARAT CONDITIONS
DIGVIJAY SINGH*, AVINASH CHAUHAN AND ALKA CHAUDHARY
National Dairy Development Board
Anand-388001 (Gujarat), India
*(e-mail: dsingh@nddb.coop)
(Received : 28 August 2018; Accepted : 10 December 2018)
SUMMARY
The field experiment was conducted in Rabi season during two consecutive years 2014-15 and 2015-16 at the fodder demonstration unit (FDU) of National Dairy Development Board, Anand (Gujarat) with the objective to evaluate different oat varieties for their seed yield, fodder yields and quality under Central Gujarat conditions. The experiment was designed in randomised block design with four replication and 13 treatments of oat varieties. The pooled data over the two years revealed that the oat varieties UPO 212 (41.15 t/ha) followed by OS 346 (41.10 t/ha) recorded significantly higher green fodder yield. Dry matter and crude protein yield was observed to be higher in oat varieties UPO 212 (9.10 t/ha) and JO-03-91 (1.18 t/ha), respectively. Oat variety Kent (1.66 t/ha) statistically at par with NDO 1 (1.53 t/ha) recorded significantly higher seed yield while the lowest seed yield was observed in oat variety RO 19 (0.53 t/ha). Test weight was significantly high in OS 346 (49.40 g) while Kent recorded lowest test weight (37.93 g). Harvest index % was recorded higher in Kent (12.33) followed by NDO 1 (12.22). Benefit:Cost (B:C) ratio for green fodder production was recorded highest equally (1.70) in UPO 212 and OS 346 followed by JO-03-91 (1.60). In seed production, B:C ratio was observed highest in oat variety Kent (2.51) followed by NDO 1 (2.14), JO-03-91 (1.75). Amongst different oat varieties crude protein content ranged between (10.49 to 13.14 %), crude fat (1.54 to 2.51 %), crude fibre (31.08 to 34.0%) and silica (2.54 to 3.68 %). Economic analysis shows that oat seed production provided greater returns as compared to green fodder production.
Key words: Oat, variety, green fodder, seed yield, crop residue, quality