Effect of harvesting program on forage and grain yields, digestibility, nitrogen concentration, tillers and crop fractions of spring barley in low-rainfall, Mediterranean environments
1998
Droushiotis, D.N. (Agricultural Research Inst., Nicosia (Cyprus))
Combinations of three harvesting treatments with three barley (Hordeum vulgare L. subsp. vulgare) cultivars commercially grown in Cyprus at two sites were compared in a four-year experiment. The harvesting treatments were: a harvest for grain and straw (GS); a milk-stage cut (H), and a grazing-stage cut followed by a milk-stage cut of the re-growth (HC). The barley cultivars used were Morocco-628, Kantara and 48-Alger, grown under rainfed conditions. The milk-stage harvest (H) produced the highest herbage dry matter and in vitro digestible yields. The grazing-stage cut (HC) reduced the final hay yield and plant height but increased the total nitrogen yield. At the grazing stage, the proportion of green leaf blade, the concentration of nitrogen and the digestibility (percentage of digestible organic matter in harvested dry matter) of total herbage were relatively high in all three cultivars (means were 77.8, 3.53 and 72.9 percent for Morocco-628, Kantara and 48-Alger, respectively). By the time the plants reached the milk stage, these numbers were reduced in all cultivars (means 14, 1.3 and 54.0 percent, respectively). Digestibility and nitrogen were 73.2 percent and 1.9 percent in grain and 36.8 percent and 0.6 percent in straw, respectively. At the grazing-stage cut, the variety Kantara had the highest proportion of stem (26.9 percent, compared with 20 percent in the other two varieties), but the lowest proportion at the milk-stage cut (47.3 percent, compared with 53 percent in the other two)
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