Studies on the optimal cutting period of forage triticale in Dingxi area

The forage triticale new variety P2 was cut at the booting, heading, flowering and milking stage and the indices including the fresh weight, hay yield, fresh dry radio, crude protein content, height, aciddetergent fiber content and neutral detergent fiber were determined. And then, the grey correlation analysis was employed to comprehensive evaluated these indices to select the optimal cutting period for this forage triticale variety. The results showed that the hay yield peaked at the milking stage with 21.58 tha-1 whereas the crude protein yield peaked at the heading stage with 2.24 tha-1 and highest comprehensive evaluation. Based on these results, the plants should be cut at milking stage for higher economic efficiency and cut at heading stage for best utilization efficiency.