Determination of grain and silage yield and quality characteristics of some maize varieties

The most important problem of our country livestock that high quality animal feed is insufficiency. Maize has a significant share in the field agriculture and livestock of Turkey that can be grown as the main and second crop with wide adaptability. In Turkey, corn production has become widespread as an ideal silage plant due to the high level of unit area yield, the suitability for silage construction and the high value of the obtained silage feeding value. In this study, grain yield and silage quality of some corn varieties were determined. The aim of the study is to determine the second crop silage corn varieties which are suitable for the ecological conditions of Bismil District of Diyarbakır province and to propose high yield and quality varieties suitable to the demands of producers and consumers. Three different registered silage corn varieties Pioneer-1921, KWS Klips and Sygenta Lucroso) were used as material in the study. The experiment was carried out on the second crop of farmers' fields after the main crop of wheat in 2017 in Diyarbakır Province Bismil District with three replications, according to randomized blocks trial design. In the study, characters such as grain yield and other yield characteristics, green grass yield and silage quality were investigated in the corn plants. In this research, agricultural characters such as plant length (243.7-299 cm), plant stem size (2.17-2.40 cm)green grass yield (380.0-421.3 kg/ha), male tasselling period (62.7-81.0 days), female tasselling period (90.7-110.7 days), number of corncobs (1.67-2.00), cob size (2.43-4.50 cm)thousand grains weight (0-189.73 g), corncob grain yield (0-88.93 g) and silage quality characters such as silage pH value (4.05-4.28), ADF (30.92-33.90 %), NDF (56.91% -59.91%) and crude protein ratio (6.52 %-7.48 %) were found statistically significant It was concluded that the Sygenta Lucroso variety showed superior values in terms of the above-mentioned yield components and earlier in point of tasselling period, and that the important quality component, which is an animal feed item, also showed superior values in terms of crude protein ratio compared to other varieties.