Evaluation of Agronomic Characteristics and Forage Production of Domestic and Foreign Italian Ryegrass Cultivar in Korea

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the agronomic characteristics and forage production of Italian ryegrass cultivars at three locations (Gurae, Sungju and Cheonan) from 2013 to 2014. The experiment employed a randomized complete block design with three replications. The seven cultivars used in this experiment were 'Korwinearly', 'Florida80', 'YounbongI', 'YounbongII', 'YounbongIII', 'KeimyungI' and 'KeimyungII' varieties. Italian ryegrass varieties were seeded on October 4 at Gurae, October 8 at Seongju and October 3 at Cheonan in 2013. The Italian ryegrass varieties were harvested on April 26 at Gurae and Seongju, and on April 24 at Cheonan in 2014. Although the seven cultivars had resistance to foliar diseases and insects and high winter survival, they has little lodging resistance. The heading dates for 'Younbong I', 'Younbong II' and 'Keimyung I' were earlier than for other varieties at the three locations. Dry matter (DM) content and plant height in the early maturing cultivars were higher than in other cultivars at the three locations. The fresh and DM yields of the early maturing cultivars were also higher than others at the three locations. The results of this experiment indicate that the heading date for early maturing cultivars is earlier, and the plant height is higher than for other cultivars. Early maturing cultivars had higher DM content as well as fresh and DM yields of Italian ryegrass. Therefore, early maturing cultivars should be recommended as high-yield forage in double-cropping systems because of their superior production of forage and early heading date.