EFFECTS OF HARVESTING AGE AND VARIETY ON BIOMASS YIELD AND FORAGE QUALITY OF OATS GROWN UNDER HYDROPONIC PRODUCTION SYSTEM IN FOGERA DISTRICT, AMAHRA REGION, ETHIOPIA

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