EFFECT OF SEEDING DENSITY, PHOSPHORUS LEVELS ON THE YIELD AND NUTRITIONAL QUALITY OF RYEGRASS (LOLIUM MULTIFLORUM L.) IN PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at Livestock Production Research Institute Bahadurnagar (Okara), Punjab, Pakistan during the Rabi season 2024-2025. Soil samples were collected at 30 cm depth before sowing the crop for its physical and chemical analysis. The crop was sown during the month of October, 2024. The experiment was laid out in RCBD design with three replications. The treatments consisted of three different seed rates 15,20 & 25kgha-1 along with three levels of Phosphorus fertilizer rates 0, 100,150 and 200 P2O5 kgha-1 and with all their possible combinations. The crop was harvested at panicle initiation stage to record the yield data. It was found that green fodder yield of 64 tons ha-1, fresh weight of green fodder per plot 191 kg per plot and 17 number of tillers per plant respectively were obtained at treatment where seed and phosphorus (P2O5) were applied @ 25 kgha-1 & 200 kg P2O5 ha-1 which were at par with seed rate of 25 kg ha-1 and phosphorus 150 kg P2O5 ha-1. Maximum plant height 116 cm was obtained at treatment where seed and phosphorus (P2O5) were applied 25 kg ha-1 & 200 kg P2O5 ha-1. There was no difference in number of leaves per plant with the change of treatments. Plant samples were collected for quality parameters. It was found that Crude Protein, Crude Fiber, Ash, Dry Matter, moisture content & ether extract in samples were 9, 19.97, 12.06, 25.15, 74.85 & 1.63 % respectively while Dry Matter yield 16.04 Ton ha-1 were obtained where seed & Phosphorus used were 25 kg ha-1 and 200 kg P2O5 ha-1. The soil samples were collected after harvesting the crop from the plot of each treatment and it was found that the available soil Phosphorus level increased with the increasing rate of its application, maximum available Phosphorus was 13.90 ppm where Phosphorus (P2O5) was applied 200 kg P2O5 ha-1. The data was analyzed statistically by using Proc. GLM procedure of SAS version 9.4 (SAS. 2017) and significant mean differences were tested by using Fisher’s protected least significant difference (LSD) test at α = 0.05.