Impact on nutrient uptake and quality of multicut oat cultivar with zinc application

Abstract The research was conducted to biofortify Oat forage by applying Zn besides evaluating the reflex of Zn applications on quality and nutrient uptake by the Oat cultivars under study. Experimental soil was sandy clay loam in texture, slightly alkaline, having available N low, with medium available P & K. Design of the experiment was split plot with two varieties of Oats in Main Plots (JHO-851 and OL-10) while variable applications of Zinc sulphate were arranged in Subplots, having 8 treatments with total treatment combinations of 16, replicated thrice. Zn was supplied through zinc sulphate heptahydrate (ZnSO 4 .7H 2 O) @ 25 kg ha − 1 . Among the Oat varieties, JHO-851 performed best in all the parameters under investigation. In subplots, a significant enhancement was recorded in nutrient uptake and quality parameters under all the Zinc application treatments concerning the control Trt 1 where Zn was not applied, at both harvests 60 DAS and 105 DAS (final cutting). Among different Zinc applications, sole treatments of Zinc either through soil @ 25 kg Zinc sulphate or by foliar applications 0.5% Zinc, did not prove to be much effective in the nutrient uptake and quality parameters in fodder. However, Zinc augmentation of soil with foliar sprays both at 45 days after sowing and 90 days after sowing recorded significant improvement in all nutrient and quality parameters, N: P: K and Zinc uptake. The best treatment at 60 days after sowing was Trt 6, while Trt 8 emerged as the best treatment. Concerning quality parameters, zinc applications significantly improved crude protein (CP) under treatments T6 and Trt8 at both cuts 60 days after sowing and 105 DAS, respectively. However, other quality parameters like NDF, ADF and Hemicellulose by different treatments of Zn were not influenced significantly. In a nutshell, the present investigation reveals that the enrichment of Zinc in Oats with agronomical means is useful as it enriches the fodder with Zinc and helps improve the nutrient uptake and the overall quality of the fodder besides being economically beneficial.