Effect of variety of maize on yield of grain, residue fractions and the nutritive value of the whole stover

Abstract

The study was conducted with the aim of evaluating three maize varieties (BH-660, BH-540 and Kulani) allreleased for production in high potential maize zones of Ethiopia by Bako Research Center for grain yield,stover components, digestible crop residue yield and nutritive value of the stover. The analysis of variancerevealed that differences between varieties were significant (P<0.01) for all measured parameters except for thehusk fraction (P>0.05); grain and leaf yields being significantly highest for BH-660. The cob and total residueyields were lowest for BH-540. The values for harvest index were highest for BH-540 (52.74%), intermediate forBH-660 (51.96 %) and lowest for Kulani (45.66 %). Significant varietal differences were observed for ash(P<0.01), neutral detergent fibre (P<0.01), acid detergent fibre (P<0.05), acid detergent lignin (P<0.05) and invitro DM digestibility (P<0.01) values. The present study generally revealed that BH-660 and BH-540 hadhigher grain yield compared to the variety Kulani. Ranking of the varieties was consistent for harvest index,potential utility index and digestible crop residue yield, the order being BH-540 > BH-660 > Kulani.Consistently similar ranking order was observed for stalk, total residue, CP and CP yield; the ranking beingKulani > BH- 660 > BH-540. BH-660 ranked first in grain yield and consistently ranked second for most of theimportant quality traits. Varieties with higher grain yield were also observed to have higher digestible cropresidue yields suggesting the possibility of selecting maize varieties that combine grain yield with desirableresidue quality attributes.