VARIATION IN FORAGE YIELD AND QUALITY TRAITS OF DUAL PURPOSE BARLEY UNDER DIFFERENT AGRONOMIC PRACTICES
GURPREET KAUR, AJAIB SINGH* C S AULAKH AND J S GILL
Department of Agronomy
Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
*Department of vegetables
(Email: maan_gk@rediffmail.com)
(Received: 20 September, 2013; Accepted:25 October, 2013)
SUMMARY
A field experiment on barley crop was conducted during Rabi 2006-07 at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. The treatments consisted of combination of three varieties (PL 172, PL 426 and RD 2552) and two row spacings (15 cm and 22.5 cm) in the main plots and two forage cutting stages (at 45 and 60 DAS) in the sub plots were laid out in split plot design with three replications. PL 172 variety gave significantly higher yields of dry fodder (19.4 q ha-1), crude protein (2.1 q ha-1), ether extract (10.52 q ha-1) and nitrogen free extract (10.31 q ha-1) than varieties PL 426 and RD 2552. Row spacing of 15 cm produced significantly higher yields of dry fodder (18.4 q ha-1), crude protein (1.9 q ha-1), ether extract (0.51 q ha-1), mineral matter (1.93 q ha-1) and nitrogen free extract (9.46 q ha-1) than the row spacing of 22.5 cm. The forage cut at 60 DAS produced significantly higher yields of dry fodder (24.2 q ha-1), crude protein (2.1 q ha-1), crude fibre (6.4 q ha-1), ether extract (0.62 q ha-1), mineral matter (2.31 q ha-1)and nitrogen free extract (0.62 q ha-1) than forage cut at 45 DAS. However, significantly higher crude protein content (13.3 %) and dry matter digestibility (76.06 %) was obtained in forage cut at 45 DAS.
Key words: Variation, time of cutting, row spacing, dry fodder, crude protein, dry matter digestibility and barley