The Comparison And Analysis Of Agronomic Traits And Quality Among Four Forage Oats Varieties In The Agro-Pastoral Ecotone Of Northern Shanxi

Forage oats,as an important forage crop,is a high-quality forage for ruminant livestock.For investigating the agronomic traits and qualities of the oats in Jinbei,the high-yield,stable-yield,and high-quality forage oat suitable for planting in Youyu County should be selected,so that the problem of nutritional supplementary feeding of ruminant livestock in the cold season was guaranteed.The field trials were conducted in the Jinbei agricultural-pastoral zone(Youyu)from June to August in 2019.Four forage oat varieties,‘Haymaker’,‘Baler 2’,‘Charisma’ and Local,were selected as experimental materials.Through the analysis and comparison of growth period,plant height,growth rate,stem thickness,flag leaf length,flag leaf width,forage yield and quality between varieties,the gray correlation comprehensive evaluation and correlation analysis of agronomic traits and nutritional quality were carried out.The main results showed that:1.The differences in agronomic traits of forage oat were markedly among the four varieties.The stem thickness(5.19 mm),flag leaf length(36.59 cm),flag leaf width(2.39 cm),plant height(135.68 cm)and growth rate of ‘Haymaker’ were significantly higher than other varieties(P<0.05).For the yield,the‘Haymaker’ showed the highest fresh grass yield(37.83 t/hm2)and hay yield(9.75 t/hm2)among four varieties.Through the comprehensive analysis of gray correlation,the agronomic traits of four forage oat varieties were in this order: ‘Haymaker’ > ‘Baler 2’ > ‘Charisma’ >Local.2.There were significant differences in the nutritional qualities between four forage oat varieties(P<0.05).The crude protein(CP)content and soluble carbohydrate(WSC)content of ‘Haymaker’ were significantly higher than those of other varieties(P<0.05),which were 12.94% and 16.40%,respectively.The feeding value of ‘Haymaker’ and ‘Baler 2’ were higher than that of Local and ‘Charisma’.The gray correlation analysis results showed that the comprehensive performance of the nutritional qualities of the four forage oat varieties was in this order: ‘Haymaker’ > ‘Baler 2’ >Local> ‘Charisma’.3.Correlation analysis of different agronomic traits and nutritional qualities of the four oats varieties showed that the plant height,flag leaf length,flag leaf width,stem thickness,hay yield,and leaf-to-stem ratio of oats presented significantly positive correlations with CP and WSC(P<0.01),while the fresh grass yield was significantly positively correlated with CP and WSC(P<0.05).The higher the value of plant height,flag leaf length,flag leaf width,stem thickness,yield,and leaf-to-stem ratio,the higher the CP and WSC content.In summary,we advocated that the comprehensive quality of ‘Haymaker’ was better than Local,‘Charisma’ and ‘Baler 2’.As the main forage variety in Youyu County,therefore,‘Haymaker’ was more suitable than Local,‘Charisma’ and ‘Baler 2’.