Hybrid Maize Varieties Research Articles

The potential of maize as a forage crop in Scotland

SUMMARYBetween 1972 and 1976 a series of 15 trials was carried out at various climatically favoured sites throughout Scotland to assess the potential of new hybrid maize varieties of European origin under Scottish conditions. No meaningful differences were found between varieties in respect of dry-matter yield or maturity.Seed rates ranged from 100 to 200 × 103 seeds/ha giving final stands from 40 to 194 × 103 plants/ha. Regression analyses for the variety Dekalb 202 included in 54 treatments indicated that the relationship between plant population density and dry-matter yield was partly linear with an important quadratic function, suggesting an optimum of 179 × 103 (± 80 × 103) plants/ha. Plant population density accounted for 65·9% (P < 0·01) of the variance in dry-matter yield but was not significantly related to dry-matter content.Climatic variation between years had no overriding influence on growth and development. Dry-matter production for the variety Dekalb 202 sown in mid-May ranged from 2·86 (1972) to 14·54 t/ha (1975) with associated dry-matter contents of 15·1 and 24·1% respectively. In a few instances slightly higher dry-matter contents (maximum 28·6%) from mid-May sowings were associated with lower yields.Neither date of sowing nor accumulated temperature to harvest measured as Ontario Heat Units was significantly related to yield but date of sowing accounted for 29·5% (P < 0·01) of the variance in dry-matter content. Accumulated Ontario Units at harvest were not significantly related to dry-matter content.An interesting relationship between dry-matter yield and the date on which the crop had received 1379 Ontario Units was found. This relationship may be useful in selecting sites at which maize may be grown or to predict maximum potential final yield in any given season.

Performances of different hybrid maize (<i>Zea mays</i> L.) varieties under intercropping systems with groundnut (<i>Arachis hypogaea</i> L.)

The experiment was carried out at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Jessore to evaluate the performance of different varieties of hybrid maize under intercropping systems with groundnut in rabi seasons to find out the suitable intercropping system in increasing crop productivity and profitability of consecutive two years (2004 and 2005). Four sole crops of hybrid maize varieties (BHM-1, BHM-3, Pacific-11 and Pacific-984), one sole crop of groundnut (var. Jhingabadam) and eight intercropping systems of maize + groundnut under two planting methods viz., normal and paired row made 13 treatments were used. Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replications. Among the intercropped treatments, four rows groundnut in between paired rows of hybrid maize var. Pacific-11 showed higher maize equivalent yield (13.56 t/ha in 2003-04 and 15.34 t/ha in 2004-05), groundnut equivalent yield (4.34 t/ha in 2003-04 and 4.91 t/ha in 2004-05), land equivalent ratio (1.54 in 2003-04 and 1.66 in 2004-05) as compared to other treatments. Key Words: Hybrid maize varieties; intercropping systems; groundnut. DOI: 10.3329/bjar.v34i4.5835Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 34(4) : 585-595, December 2009

Production potential of different varieties of hybrid maize (<i>Zea mays</i> L.) with groundnut (<i>Arachis hypogaea</i> L.) under intercropping system

The experiment was carried out at the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Jessore to evaluate the performance of different varieties of hybrid maize under intercropping systems with groundnut in Rabi seasons for higher productivity and profitability. Four sole crops of hybrid maize varieties viz., BHM-1, BHM-3, Pacific-11, and Pacific-984, one sole crop of groundnut (var. Jhingabadam) and eight intercropping systems of maize + groundnut under two planting methods viz., normal and paired row made 13 treatments, were used for two consecutive years (2004 and 2005). Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replications. Among the intercropped treatments, four rows groundnut in between paired rows of hybrid maize var. Pacific 11 showed higher total dry mater (TDM), leaf area index (LAI), crop growth rate (CGR), gross return, net return and benefit cost ratio (BCR) than the other planting systems tested in the experiment. Keywords: Production potential; hybrid maize; groundnut; intercropping system. DOI: 10.3329/bjar.v35i1.5866Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 35(1) : 51-64, March 2010