Abstract
Eight varieties of perennial ryegrass (six new varieties and two old ones) grown at five levels of applied fertilizer (100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 kg of N ha–1) were cut monthly during two growing seasons (March to October in 1997 and 1998) and their herbage dry-matter (DM) yield and nitrogen (N) content were determined. Herbage leaf content and the N content of young fully expanded leaves were also measured in 1997, and monthly recovery of applied N was determined in both the first and second harvest years by using 15N.
The rank order of varieties was similar for annual yield of DM and N at all five fertilizer levels. Proportional differences between varieties in DM yield were greatest in the first cut of each year, the late-heading candidate variety Ba12151 out-yielding the old late-heading variety S23 by more than 70%. However, differences in annual DM yield were much more modest than in early spring yield, up to 10% in 1997 and up to 21% in 1998. The relatively small differences in total annual DM yield were attributed to only a small proportion of the applied N being recovered during a single regrowth period, most of the remainder becoming available for uptake in subsequent regrowth periods.
There were small but highly statistically significant differences among varieties in the N content of their leaves, leaf N content being inversely related to yield of DM and N. This lends further support to the hypothesis that the metabolic cost of protein synthesis and turnover is a key factor controlling genetic variation both in leaf yield and in annual DM and N yield under frequent harvesting. Seasonal variation in herbage N content was much greater than differences among varieties in mean N content over all harvests. In May of both years at all applied fertilizer levels, herbage N content fell below the 20 g N kg–1 DM level required by productive grazing animals
The rank order of varieties was similar for annual yield of DM and N at all five fertilizer levels. Proportional differences between varieties in DM yield were greatest in the first cut of each year, the late-heading candidate variety Ba12151 out-yielding the old late-heading variety S23 by more than 70%. However, differences in annual DM yield were much more modest than in early spring yield, up to 10% in 1997 and up to 21% in 1998. The relatively small differences in total annual DM yield were attributed to only a small proportion of the applied N being recovered during a single regrowth period, most of the remainder becoming available for uptake in subsequent regrowth periods.
There were small but highly statistically significant differences among varieties in the N content of their leaves, leaf N content being inversely related to yield of DM and N. This lends further support to the hypothesis that the metabolic cost of protein synthesis and turnover is a key factor controlling genetic variation both in leaf yield and in annual DM and N yield under frequent harvesting. Seasonal variation in herbage N content was much greater than differences among varieties in mean N content over all harvests. In May of both years at all applied fertilizer levels, herbage N content fell below the 20 g N kg–1 DM level required by productive grazing animals
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 69-76 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Grass and Forage Science |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 01 Mar 2000 |
