Hay yield and quality of oat (Avena sativa L.) genotypes of worldwide origin

Abstract

<span>Oat (<span><em>Avena sativa </em><span>L.) traditionally has been a major crop for feed and forage in Turkey. The<br /><span>objective of this research was to study hay yield and quality of oat genotypes harvested at the<br /><span>late milk stage. One hundred oat varieties of worldwide origin were compared in field<br /><span>experiments in Samsun (northern Turkey) over two growing seasons (2007-2008 and 2008-2009).<br /><span>Significant differences between the tested oat varieties were observed for the plant height, hay<br /><span>yield, crude protein (CP), acid detergent fibre (ADF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), total<br /><span>digestible nutrients (TDN), relative feed value (RFV) and macro minerals (Ca, K, P and Mg).<br /><span>Plant height varied from 76.2 to 141.2 cm, hay yield from 6.03 to 11.83 t ha<span>-1<span>, crude protein<br /><span>from 58.8 to 136.4 g kg<span>-1 <span>dry matter (DM), acid detergent fibre from 333.2 to 424.8 g kg<span>-1 <span>DM<br /><span>and neutral detergent fibre from 522.5 to 652.4 g kg<span>-1 <span>DM. The TDN ranged from 465.1 to<br /><span>583.3 g kg<span>-1 <span>and relative feed value from 80.9 to 112%. Cluster analysis grouped the 100<br /><span>genotypes within 7 clusters, each of which having 17, 21, 13, 12, 20, 12 and 5 genotypes. Sisko,<br /><span>Akiyutaka, Longchamp, Sanova, Flämingslord, Matra and Revisor were identified as the high<br /><span>hay yield potential genotypes. However, quality traits of these genotypes were lower than some<br /><span>of other genotypes. Furthermore, while some macro minerals were insufficient, others were in<br /><span>excess regarding healthy feeding. Hence, some form of commercial mineral supplement would<br /><span>be required to oat-based ration or oat should be grown in mixtures with legumes for feeding<br /><span>productive livestock.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>