Effect of variety and stage of maturity on nutritive value of whole crop rice, yield, botanical fractions, silage fermentability and chemical composition

The effect of eight varieties of grain and forage type whole crop rice (Oryza sativa I-Japonica) each harvested at four stages of maturity were investigated for morphology and yield, proportion of botanical fractions, fermentatability and chemical composition in an 8x4 factorial experiment. All crops were sown in 1997 at Saitama Prefecture, Japan under identical condition and harvested on 10, 22, 34 and 45 days after flowering in 1998. Total DM yield of forage type varieties was similar to that of the highest yield of gain type varieties. However, while yield of forage type varieties was attributed to higher proportion of straw than head, the reverse was in the case of grain type varieties. Yield in line with the proportion of head increased (p<0.001), but in contrast proportion of straw decreased (p<0.001) with the increase in maturity. Silage fermentability of grain type varieties was better than forage type varieties. Fermentability improved with the increase (p<0.001) in maturity suggesting that the moisture content should be reduced to improve fermentation quality. Forage type varieties contained higher (p<0.001) ash, crude fat (EE), organic cell wall (OCW) and acid detergent fiber (ADF), but contained lower crude protein (CP), organic cell content (OCC), CP in OCC and nitrogen-free cell wall extract (NCWFE) than the grain type varieties. The ash, CP, EE, Oa (60% digestible OCW), Ob (40% digestible OCW), OCW, ADF and acid detergent lignin (ADL) decreased (p<0.001), but OCC and NCWFE increased (p<0.001) with the increase in maturity. It is concluded that stage of maturity not only increases yield and proportion of head, but also improved the fermentation quality and increases quality chemical composition (except CP) of whole crop rice. Forage type varieties may be as good as grain type varieties in terms of yield, but fermentation quality and chemical composition may not be as good as that of grain type varieties.