College of Dryland Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mekelle University, P.O. Box 231, Mekelle, Ethiopia; College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Debre Berhan University, P.O. Box 445, Debre Berhan, Ethiopia
Beyene, G., College of Dryland Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mekelle University, P.O. Box 231, Mekelle, Ethiopia; Araya, A., College of Dryland Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mekelle University, P.O. Box 231, Mekelle, Ethiopia; Gebremedhn, H., College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Debre Berhan University, P.O. Box 445, Debre Berhan, Ethiopia
Oat is the most important well-adapted cereal fodder crop grown in the central highlands of Ethiopia. Ethiopia has a wide range of agro-ecological zones, described in the research centers to develop varieties to suit different zones as well as different systems of fodder production. However, the yield per acre is still far below than optimum level of production. Considering such a miserable picture in the country, field experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of seven forage oat varieties namely: 80-SA-130, 8251-CI, 80-SA-95, 8237-CI, Lampton, 8235-CI and Jasari at Agricultural Experiment Station of Debre Berhan University, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources during the year of 2014/15. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design having three replications and a net plot of size 1.2 m x 5 m. Data was recorded for plant height, leaf number tiller-1, tiller number plant-1, tillers per m2 and green fodder yield. The varieties differed in yield and yield related parameters. The variety Lampton produced significantly higher green forage yield (67.2 t·ha-1) than other varieties due to taller plants (178cm), more number of tillers plant-1 (14.2), tillers per m2 (256) and number of leaves tiller-1 (6.89) whereas, the variety Jasari recorded lowest (44.5 t·ha-1). Hence variety Lampton proved its superiority over all the other varieties included in the experiment. © 2015 Fundacion CIPAV. All rights reserved.