Abstract:
The experiment was conducted in Fogera district at Woreta Agricultural Technique
Vocational and Educational Training center, Amahra National Regional State, Ethiopia
with the objective of to evaluate the effects of harvesting age and variety on forage
biomass yield and quality of oats grown under hydroponic production system.The
experimental design was a factorial arrangement in a Completely Randomized Design
(CRD) with two factors (harvesting age and oat variety) with 3 replication. The first
factor was harvesting age at the 10-day harvesting age (HA10), the 12-day harvesting
age (HA12) and the14-day harvesting age (HA14). The second factor was the different
oats varieties (CI-8251, Hulegeb, Tiena, and Jasari). Dry matter, Ash, Crude Protein,
Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF), Acid Detergent Fiber content (ADF) and Acid Detergent
Lignin (ADL) were analyzed in Bahir Dar University Animal Nutrition Laboratory. The
collected data was analyzed by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) using the General Linear
Model (GLM) statistical analysis system (SAS, 2008) version 9.2. All morphological
parameters such as number of leaves per plant (NLPP), stem weight (SW), leaf to stem
ratio (LSR) and all chemical compositions were significantly different (P<0.001) with
harvesting age (HA) and oats varieties. Plant height, stem length, leaf length, and all
chemical compositions were significantly different (P<0.001) by the interaction effects.
The highest plant height (16.92 cm) and (30.25%) CP was recorded from jasari oats
variety on the 14th days of harvesting. The highest fresh fodder biomass yield (FFBY)
152.84 t/ha, and dry matter yield (DMY) 35.37 t/ha were obtained at14th days of
harvesting. In the case of harvesting age, all morphological parameters increased with
increasing harvesting date, except for LSR. All morphological characteristics were
significantly affected (P<0.001) by different oats varieties. From the current study, it can
be concluded that based on FFBY, DMY and CP jasari was the recommended oats
variety on the 14th of days harvesting, followed by CI-8251 investigated in the current
study.
Keywords: Oat varieties, Biomass, Nutritive value, Hydroponics
