INFLUENCE OF CUTTING MANAGEMENT ON GROWTH, GRAIN AND FODDER YIELD OF DIFFERENT CEREALS

Abstract

The experiment was conducted at the research field of the department of Agronomy, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University during the period from November, 2019 to March, 2020 for assessing cutting management effects on growth and yield performance of different cereals. The experiment comprised of two factors viz. factor A: Cutting (3); i) Uncut - C₁, ii) One cut at 25 Dates After Sowing (DAS) - C₂ and iii) Two cuts at 25 DAS and 61 DAS - C₃; factor B: Crops (4), i) Wheat - G₁, ii) Triticale - G₂, iii) Barley - G₃ and iv) Oat - G₄. This experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Significant differences were observed among different cutting management with respect to yield and yield attributing parameters of cereal crops. A yield advantages of 0.55 t ha⁻¹ and 1.45 t ha⁻¹ over C₂ (One cut at 25 DAS) and C₃ (Two cuts at 25 DAS and 61 DAS), respectively was found which was possibly aided by the tallest plant at 80 DAS (105.79 cm), the highest number of tillers m⁻² (67.54), the maximum number of leaves plant⁻¹ at 80 DAS (22.27), maximum leaf area index at 80 DAS (11.06), the highest fresh weight at 80 DAS (101.00 g), highest dry weight at 80 DAS (39.41 g), the maximum number of grains spike⁻¹ (54.42), the highest weight of grains spike⁻¹ (3.49 g), the longest spike (18.87 cm), the highest straw yield (7.23 t ha⁻¹) and the highest biological yield (12.48 t ha⁻¹) in the C₁ (No cut) treatment. The result revealed that oat (G₄) exhibited its superiority to other tested cereal crop that out-yielded over Triticale (G₂) and Barley (G₃) by 35.59% and 16.00% higher yield, respectively. Oat (G₄) also showed the tallest plant at 80 DAS (107.19 cm), the highest number of tillers m⁻² (77.25), the maximum number of leaves plant⁻¹ at 80 DAS (21.92), maximum leaf area index at 80 DAS (13.86), the highest fresh weight at 80 DAS (90.55 g), the highest dry weight at 80 DAS (34.12 g), the maximum number of grains spike⁻¹ (56.66), the lowest number of unfilled grains spike⁻¹ (2.35), the highest weight of grains spike⁻¹ (3.29 g), the longest spike (26.91 cm), the highest straw yield (10.15 t ha⁻¹) and the highest biological yield (15.75 t ha⁻¹) than other tested cereal crops in this experiment. Among the interactions, C₁G₄ and C₂G₄ were superior in most of the growth, yield attributes and fodder production along with grain yield and yield parameters along with higher amount of fodder production. From the result of the experiment, it may be concluded that oat cut once at 25 DAS seemed promising as dual-purpose crop in Bangladesh.