Determination of Yield and Silage Quality of Some Maize Cultivars in Erzurum Conditions

This research was carried out in irrigated experiment field of agriculture faculty of atatürk university in 2005 and 2006. 11 maize cultivars (arifiye, sze tc-513, ossk-596, ossk-644, karadeniz yıldızı, ttm-813, akpınar, girona, mataro, epila and borja) were grown and used for making silage. the experiment was designed as randomized complete block design with three replicates. the growth degree of cultivars, green yield (silage material yield), dry matter ratio, plant height, ear ratio, crude protein ratios and ndf, and physical evaluation of silages were investigated in the study. the results can be summarized as follows. in terms of all observed characters, statistically significant differences were determined amongst the cultivars. the green yields of maize cv. were ranged from 5038 to 7427 kg da^-1. sze tc-513 and ossk-596 maize varieties have high green yields (7427 and 7400 kg da^-1). the highest dry matter ratio (31.58%) were found in girona variety, the highest ear ratio (47.3%) was found in epila variety. according to physical evaluation, the silage of epila has perfect, while other varieties had good silage quality. according to the results, sze tc-513 and ossk-596 cultivars were suggested for silage under erzurum and similar ecological conditions.