Seasonal trends in herbage yield and quality of Agropyrons

Mayland, H.F. and Asay, K.H. and Clark, D.H. (1992) Seasonal trends in herbage yield and quality of Agropyrons. Journal of Range Management. 45:369-374.

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Abstract

Crested wheatgrasses (Agropyron spp.) are grown on 6 million
ha in the U.S. and Canada, where they provide excellent early-season
forage, but lose nutritional quality by midsummer. Some
producers believe that A. fragile maintains its quality longer than
other crested wheatgrasses. This study compared herbage yield and
quality of 3 A. fragile entries with A. desertorum, A. cristatum,
1-28 (induced tetraploid of A. cristatum), and the hybrid 'Hycrest'.
Entries were established near Logan, Ut., on 1-m spacings. Herbage
yield and quality were determined in year 2 and 3 at vegetative,
boot, flower, seed ripe, and post-seed-ripe maturity stages
(harvests 1 through 5) and on regrowth following the vegetative
and boot-stage harvests. All entries flowered within 1 to 2 days of
each other. Dry-matter yield increased for all grasses, but digestibility
(IVDMD), crude protein, and elemental concentrations
declined with maturity. Mean IVDMD values for all grasses were
741,642,534,485, and 444 mg g-1 for harvests 1 through 5 and 490
and 560 mg g-1 for the regrowth following harvest 1 and 2. The A.
fragile entries had higher N, Ca, P, and Ca/P, but lower yield,
IVDMD, and grass tetany potential values than other Agropyrons.
Contrary to expectations, IVDMD of A. fragile decreased to 500
mg g-1 , 6 to 11 days earlier than for the other Agropyrons. The 1-28
and Hycrest entries had higher yield, IVDMD, K, and grass tetany
risk and lower N, Ca, P, and Ca/P than the other Agropyrons.

Item Type:	Article
NWISRL Publication Number:	0769
Subjects:	Irrigated crops > Grass forage Mass Import - autoclassified (may be erroneous)
Depositing User:	Dan Stieneke
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2010 21:53
Last Modified:	01 Dec 2016 22:56
Item ID:	574
URI:	https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/574