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Yield and Quality of Midland and Two New F1 Hybrid Bermudagrasses 1
Author(s) -
Horn F. P.,
Taliaferro C. M.,
Morrison R. D.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj1976.00021962006800010034x
Subject(s) - loam , cynodon dactylon , udic moisture regime , hybrid , yield (engineering) , agronomy , biology , dry matter , mathematics , zoology , soil water , ecology , materials science , metallurgy
Abstract This study was conducted during the 1974 growing season to compare ‘Midland’ bermudagrass ( Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.), and two newly developed F 1 hybrids. The new hybrids appeared, on the basis of mass screening experiments, to be superior to Midland in both yield and quality. A split‐plot design was used with the three grasses as main plots (strain S‐15 and ‘Oklan’ and Midland bermudagrass), N‐fertilizer levels as subplots (17, 50, and 150 kg N/ha) and harvest interval as sub‐subplots (3, 5, 7, 9, and 11‐week intervals). The experimental site was a Canadian fine sandy loam belonging to the Udic Haplustolls. Oklan yielded significantly more dry matter (DM)/ha than did S‐15 or Midland (P<0.05). Oklan was also more digestible than S‐15 or Midland (P<0.05). S‐15 and Midland were not significantly different in either yield or digestibility (P>0.05). Oklan and Midland were not significantly different in crude protein (CP) content (P>0.05), but both were higher in CP than S‐15. It was concluded that Oklan bermudagrass is superior to Midland in terms of both yield and quality, but that the S‐15 strain is inferior to Midland bermudagrass and consequently should not be released. Increasing levels of N fertilizer brought about a linear increase in DM yield and a linear increase in CP percentage of all grasses and, those grasses in plots receiving the high level of N were higher in digestibility (IVDMD) than were those receiving the low level of N (P<0.05). Rate of increase in DM production declined when more than five weeks between harvests were allowed. Thus, the 5‐week harvest interval was the nearest to optimum for maximum digestible nutrient production of the harvest intervals studied.