EVALUATION OF BIOMASS YEILD, SEED YIELD, CHEMICAL COMPOSITION, AND COMPATIBILITY OF VETCH AND OATS VARIETIES MIXTURES

Different species and varieties of forage vetch and oat were identified to successfully adapt and preform in high lands of Bale. However, their oat-vetch mixture was not evaluated. The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of variety on biomass yield, seed yield, forage quality, and biological compatibility of oats and vetch grown in pure stand and mixtures. This experiment was conducted at Sinana Agricultural Research Center, Bale zone, southern Ethiopia, during the Gana cropping season on the month of May 2023. A total of five treatments were developed for sole and mixed stands using two oat varieties and one vetch variety. A trial was arranged in RCBD with five replications. The recorded data are morphological parameters, biomass, seed yield, relative yield total, relative crowding coefficient and aggressivity index were calculated for biological compatibility and yield advantages of oats and vetch and chemical composition were recorded and subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) following the GLM procedures in SAS version 9.4. The highest dry matter yield (DMY) 18.6 t/ha was observed by the mixture of Gebisa variety + oat Bonsa variety. Among the mixture treatments Gebisa variety + oat Bonsa variety has the highest crude protein (CP) 12.9% and seed yield (2.9 t/ha) while pure stand Bona-bas variety was the lowest crude protein (CP) 6.52% (1.28 t/ha) seed yield. Relative yield (RY) of oats and vetch varieties were less than one indicating that the yield obtained in the pure stands were higher than those from the mixed stands of the component species for both varieties. The RYT of most mixed stands were greater than one indicating mixed stands to have superior yield advantage compared to the pure stand plots. The highest RYT value of 1.32, from the mixture of Gebisa variety + oat Bonsa variety suggested a biological yield advantage of 32% in mixed cropping compared to the pure stand plots. Generally, the result indicated that Gebisa variety had higher CP and lower NDF than their respective mixtures and pure oats. The dry matter yield (DMY), crude protein yield CPY and neutral detergent fiber yield (NDFY) of mixtures of Gebisa variety + oat Bonsa variety mixtures were better than pure stands. The RYT values of these mixtures were also greater than one. Based on the current result it is concluded that oat Bonsa variety + Gebisa variety mixtures had relatively higher yield biomass, quality and better compatible. Generally, in the present study on Oat-vetch mixture their is higher yield biomass, quality so, Animal performance must be tested