Critical Sowing Date for Crop Choice among Winter Forage Cereals in Khartoum (Sudan)

Abstract

An experiment was conducted for two consecutive winter
seasons (2004/05 and 2005/2006) at Shambat Research Farm, Khartoum
State (Sudan) to study the performance of three winter sown forage cereal
cultivars at five sowing dates. The objective of the study was to enable the
farmers to choose the most suitable forage crop for each sowing date in
Khartoum State. The treatments comprised three cultivars, viz. a local
variety of barley (Hordeum vulgare), referred to as ‘Baladi’, a local
variety of maize (Zea mays) referred to as ‘Higeri’ and sorghum
(Sorghum bicolor) cultivar ‘Abu Sabeen’, sown at five sowing dates viz. 1
and 15 December, 1 and 15 January and 1 February in each season. A
split-plot design with three replicates was used to execute the experiment.
The sowing dates were assigned to the main plots and the cultivars to the
subplots. At harvest, data were collected on the number of culms/m 2 ,
number of days to harvest, plant height and the forage dry matter yield.
The results indicated that the dry matter yields of barley were the highest
in each of the first three sowing dates, whereas those of sorghum were the
highest in the last two sowing dates. The dry matter yield of maize was
comparable to that of sorghum during the first three sowing dates but was
markedly lower during the last two sowing dates. Hence, 15 of January
could be considered as a critical sowing date for the crop choice between
barley and sorghum in Khartoum State.