Silage Quality of Second Crop Forage Pea at Different Plant Densities and Cereal Mixtures

Authors : Onur Ileri, Şule Erkovan, Halil Ibrahim Erkovan, Ali Koç

Pages : 35-45

View : 18 | Download : 10

Publication Date : 2020-12-31

Article Type : Research

Abstract :This research was conducted to determine the effects of different plant densities (80, 100, 120 plants m-2) and mixtures of 25 and 50 % oat, silage maize, and Sudangrass on the silage quality of forage pea in 2018 and 2019 years. Plant density affected dry matter (DM), crude fat (CF), crude ash (CA), crude protein (CP), neutral detergen fiber (NDF), and acid detergent fiber (ADF) contents significantly. DM and CF content was higher at the densities of 80 and 100 plants m-2 while CA content was higher at the density of 120 plants m-2. Increasing plant density caused an increment in CP and NDF contents but CP content did not significantly change between 100 and 120 plants m-2 while there was a significant decrease of NDF content at the density of 120 plants m-2. Mixture type significantly affected all of the investigated parameters. The highest dry matter content was observed in the 25 and 50 % of Sudangrass mixtures (26,13 and 26,15 % respectively). pH value and Fleig score were observed to be lower in the all mixtures of silage maize and Sudangrass. Silages of sole crop forage pea (3,08 %) and oat mixture (2,98 % for 25 % and 2,90 % for 50 %) had higher CF content than the silages of pea-silage maize and pea-Sudangrass mixtures. CA content was generally similar within all mixes but it was lower at the 50 % of Sudangrass (8,00 %). Cereal mixtures increased the NDF content of forage pea silage but except for oat, ADF content of the forage pea silage decreased when mixed with cereals. According to the results, sowing should be carried out using the density of 100 plants m-2 and silage maize (25 %) or Sudangrass (25 or 50 %) could be added at sowing for increasing the silage quality of second crop forage pea.
Keywords : Forage pea, Silage quality, Plant density, Mixture