An evaluation of the drop-disc technique for measurements of herbage production in ryegrass for silage
- Resource Type
- Authors
- J. T. Douglas; C. E. Crawford
- Source
- Grass and Forage Science. 49:252-255
- Subject
- Linear relationship
Agronomy
Silage
Drop (liquid)
Dry matter
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Agronomy and Crop Science
Mathematics
- Language
- ISSN
- 1365-2494
0142-5242
The drop-disc method of estimating herbage dry-matter production was evaluated for ryegrass from growth commencement to the silage stage; the latter typically corresponded to a maximum dry matter (DM) mass of almost 7 t ha−1. A close linear relationship (r2= 0·829) was found between disc settlement height and DM mass up to 4–5 t ha−1 for the period when growth was mainly vegetative rather than reproductive. During the latter stage, the presence of stems and the occurrence of lodging had a detrimental effect on the quality of disc calibration data. The technique was demonstrably useful in experiments as a cheap, rapid and trouble-free method for monitoring the initiation of grass production and rate of production during the vegetative stage.