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Oat and wheat forage production under hydroponic and conventional systems

Abstract:

In the Southern Region of Ecuador, the production of oat (Avena sativa L.) and wheat (Triticum vulgare L.) obtained through a Hydroponic Green Forage (HGF) system was compared to the conventional or Open Field (OF) production system. For each production system and crop, the experiment was established under a complete block design, installing four treatments (two in HGF and two in OF), with three repetitions each. The plant height (PH) of each crop was evaluated for each production system, while for each system and crop, the production of biomass, crude protein (CP) (p < 0.05), and the benefit-cost ratio (B/C) were determined. The highest PH was obtained in HGF wheat with 17.67 cm and in OF oat with 82.78 cm. In biomass production, HGF wheat reached 23.57 kg/m2 green matter (GM) or 3.10 kg/m2 dry matter (DM); the rest of the treatments were below 13 kg/m2 GM (1.39 kg/m2 DM). The percentage of protein in OF wheat was higher with 19.90 %, followed by OF oat, whereas HGF wheat and HGF oat exhibited values of around 10 %. Concerning the benefit-cost ratio, the HGF wheat showed values of 1.46 compared to HGF oat with 0.67, OF wheat with 0.26, and OF oat with 1.00. For this reason, the complementarity of the two production systems, especially in wheat cropping, could be an option for animal feed.