Effect of Cultivar , Harvest Date and Drying Method on the Quality of Spring Harvest Oat Hay

품종 , 수확시기 및 건조제처리가 춘계수확 연맥건초의 사료가치에 미치는 영향

This experiment was canied out to determine the effect of cultivar, harvest date and drying method on the changes of moisture content and quality of spring harvest oat(Avena sativa L.) hay. Disign of the experiment was a spilt-split-plot arrangement with early and late cultivars as main plots, early and late harvest dates as sub-plots, and drying agent and tedding as sub-subplots in three replications. Moisture content of early harvest oat was higher than that of late harvest oat by 127.1% dry weight(DW) in 'Swan' and 39.8%DW in 'Foothill'. Moisture content difference between 'Foothill' and 'Swan' was 117.6%DW at early and 204.9%DW at late harvest dates, respectively. Cultivar effect on moisture content of cut oat was higher at late harvest date, but drying method effect was higher at early harvest. Total nitrogen content of early harvest was higher than that of late harvest by 0.70% and that of 'Foothill' was higher than that of 'Swon' by 0.86%. But no difference in total nitrogen content was found between the drying method. ADF and NDF contents were increased at late harvest by 29% and 1 I%, respectively(P<0.05). ADF and NDF contents of 'Swan' were higher than those of 'Foothill' by 2.8% and 4.5%, respectively. No difference in ADF and NDF contents was obtained by drying methods. RFV of early harvest oat hay was 95.1 and 103.8 for 'Swan' and 'Foothill' but late harvest 'Swan' and 'Foothill' showed 74.8 and 85.0, respectively.