• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.25-34
• /
• 2010

Although whole crop barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is now widely grown as a silage crop in Korea, forage production and silage quality of that for organic farm have not been published. Therefore, this experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of harvest stage on forage production and quality of organic barley, and effect of field wilting and crushed rice for shortening of harvest date and improvement of forage quality. The experiment was split-plot design with three replications. Main plots were heading, milking and yellow stages, and sub-plot were field wilting for I day, crushed rice 10% (CR10%) and 15% (CR15%) treatments. The dry matter (DM) contents of heading, milking and yellow stages were 12.8%, 21.9% and 29.8%, respectively. The DM yields of heading, milking and yellow stages were 10,346, 15,819 and 18,336 kg/ha, respectively, and the total digestible nutrients (TDN) of these were 6,288, 9,550 and 10,178 kg/ha, respectively. The pH of milking stage showed low 4.00 pH values. The crude protein, ether extract, crude ash, non-fiber carbohydrate (NFC) and TDN contents were decreased as harvest stage progressed, while neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) were increased. The crude ash (CA) of milking stage showed the lowest among harvest stages. Field wilting and crushed rice treatments decreased CA, NDF and ADF contents, and increased NFC and TDN contents. In vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) decreased with progressed harvest stage, while field wilting and crushed rice treatments increased that of barley silage. Lactic acid and total organic acid contents of milking stage were the highest, and butyric acid of milking stage was the lowest among harvest stage. The good effect of field wilting and crushed rice was observed in heading stage. The experiment results indicate that optimum harvest stage of barley silage for organic was milking stage. The field wilting and crushed rice additive could be recommended as effective method for shortening harvest date and increasing forage quality of organic barley silage