Yield and Quality of Midland and Two New F1 Hybrid Bermudagrasses
1976
Horn, F. P. | Taliaferro, C. M. | Morrison, R. D.
This study was conducted during the 1974 growing season to compare ‘Midland’ bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.), and two newly developed F₁ hybrids. The new hybrids appeared, on the basis of mass screening experiments, to be superior to Midland in both yield and quality. A split-plot design was used with the three grasses as main plots (strain S-15 and ‘Oklan’ and Midland bermudagrass), N-fertilizer levels as subplots (17, 50, and 150 kg N/ha) and harvest interval as sub-subplots (3, 5, 7, 9, and 11-week intervals). The experimental site was a Canadian fine sandy loam belonging to the Udic Haplustolls. Oklan yielded significantly more dry matter (DM)/ha than did S-15 or Midland (P<0.05). Oklan was also more digestible than S-15 or Midland (P<0.05). S-15 and Midland were not significantly different in either yield or digestibility (P>0.05). Oklan and Midland were not significantly different in crude protein (CP) content (P>0.05), but both were higher in CP than S-15. It was concluded that Oklan bermudagrass is superior to Midland in terms of both yield and quality, but that the S-15 strain is inferior to Midland bermudagrass and consequently should not be released. Increasing levels of N fertilizer brought about a linear increase in DM yield and a linear increase in CP percentage of all grasses and, those grasses in plots receiving the high level of N were higher in digestibility (IVDMD) than were those receiving the low level of N (P<0.05). Rate of increase in DM production declined when more than five weeks between harvests were allowed. Thus, the 5-week harvest interval was the nearest to optimum for maximum digestible nutrient production of the harvest intervals studied.
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