The Assessment of Cattle Slurry Application on Productivity and Feed Values of Barley and Hairy Vetch Influenced by Sowing Methods

This trial was conducted to assess effects of cattle slurry application on productivity and feed values of barley and hairy vetch when they were influenced by single or mixed-sowed cultivation in paddy fields, and to obtain good quality of organic forage resources. The results summarized are as follows. For barley and hairy vetch, single-sowed cultivation was lower in annual dry matter (DM) and total digestible nutrients (TDN) yields than mixed-sowed (P less than 0.05). Although crude protein (CP) contents for the barley within single-sowed treatments were lowest as 6.5%, those of hairy vetch within the same sowed method were highest as 16.7%. However, mixed-sowed cultivation with barley and hairy vetch, showing 13.8% CP content, was significantly (P less than 0.05) higher than CP and relative feed value (RFV) of barley alone treatment. For barley alone treatment, cattle slurry application significantly increased annual DM and TDN yields in comparison with treatments of P+K fertilization as chemical fertilizers and no fertilizer as controls. Results from cattle slurry application showed 84% and 82% in contrast with chemical fertilizer for annual DM and TDN yields, respectively. For mixed-sowed cultivation with barley and hairy vetch, cattle slurry application showed 90% and 94% annual DM and TDN yields, respectively as compared with N+P+K fertilization as chemical fertilizers. Crude protein contents (14.2~15.9%) for cattle slurry application treatments were significantly (P less than 0.05) higher than those of other treatments. Moreover, cattle slurry application treatment had the highest TDN and RFV among treatments, showing 60.7~61.8% and 112.2~118.1, respectively. For hairy vetch alone treatments, annual DM and TDN yields of cattle slurry alone application treatment were highest among fertilization treatments. Furthermore, CP, TDN and RFV of cattle slurry alone application treatments were significantly (P less than 0.05) higher than those of other treatments. The results showed that mixed-sowed cultivation rather than single-sowed for barley or hairy vetch improved their nutritive value and quality, and also within mixed-sowed cultivation, cattle slurry application increased production yield per ha and CP contents. In the application of above system to organic livestock farming, it would be expected that forages produced by cattle slurry application under mixed-sowed method might become a substitute for foreign organic grain as protein sources.