Productivity and nutritive parameters of fodder maize under varying plant density and fertility levels for improved animal productivity

Nutritive quality parameters of forages are largely affected by management at farm level. Therefore, a field investigation was carried out during two consecutive kharif seasons of 2014 and 2015 at Forage Research and Management Centre, National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal to evaluate the effect of different planting densities and fertility levels on growth, yield and nutritive quality of fodder maize. Treatment consisted of three planting densities using seed rates of 60,75 and 90 kg/ha in main plot and six fertility levels in subplots (0,50,75,100,125 and 150% of recommended dose of fertilizer. Results of two year study indicated that at low plant density (60 kg/ha seed rate) response to applied fertilizer was significant up to 125 % RDF, while at higher plant density response was only up to 75% RDF. Therefore, plant density (60 kg/ha seed rate) and fertility level (125% RDF i.e. 150 kg N/ha and 60 kg P2O5/ha) should be used to obtain maximum green fodder yield with good quality.