Investigation of quantitative and qualitative characteristics of silage corn genotypes in Varamin region

Document Type : Research Paper

Abstract

In order to investigate the agro-morphological and physiologic characteristics of different silage corn genotypes, an experiment was carried out at Agricultural and Natural Resource Research Center of Tehran Province during 2009-2010. In this experiment, twenty genotypes of silage corn were compared in the form of Randomized Complete Blocks Design with four replications. Evaluated traits were growth period, number of leaf, plant height, stem diameter, dry and freshweight of leaf, stem, sheath, ear as well as dry and fresh forage yield and its quality. Correlation among studied treats showed, dried weight of stem, ear and sheath had the highest correlation with forage yield. The genotype No.2 (K3547/4×MO17) had the highest correlation in the most of investigated characteristics such as number of leaf, stem diameter, dry and fresh weight of sheath and ear, growth period and dried forage yield, but didn’t showed appropriate quality. In respect to forage quality, the genotypes of No.16 (KLM76004/2-1-7-2-1-1-1-1 ×K19/1) and No.18 (KSC670 (K3653/2×K19)) showed the highest percent of dry matter digestibility and the genotype No.2 pointed out the highest percent of crude protein, percent of dissolved fiber and ash percent. The genotype No.18 allocated the highest percent of metabolizable energy. So, it seems that the genotype No.16 with middle height but folious, middle stem weight and relatively high ear weight and produced forage quality is of particular importance and can be a suitable option for the region.

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