Cultivation of high-quality forage crop by using fallow field during winter is required for national high feed self-sufficiency and establishment of self-supply system of high-quality forage crop. Field experiments for cultivation of high-quality winter forage crop were conducted at the paddy and upland fields in Cheonan and Anseong city with treatments of single Italian ryegrass(IRG) and IRG mixed with forage barley at the paddy field and of single forage barley and forage barley mixed with IRG at the upland field in the Mid-west plain. Several cultivation conditions such as broadcasting IRG seed under standing rice, sowing time, tillage method, drainage condition, mixed sowing with forage barley were compared to know the change of growth, yield and quality of winter forage crop. In particular, over-wintering rate and dry matter yield were decreased significantly in late-sown IRG and moisture-stressed forage barley. Yield and quality of forage crops were increased by sowing after tillage, mixed sowing of IRG with barley at the paddy field with good drainage. High yield as much as dry matter 10 MT ha-1 with high feed value could be obtained by early sowing of feed barley mixed with IRG at the upland field. Cultivation conditions such as early sowing, sowing after tillage, drainage management are required for higher dry matter yield, quality and stable cultivation of winter forage crops in the mid-west plain of Korea.

This study investigated the comparative growth characteristics, yield, chemical compositions, and nutritive yield of Italian ryegrass cultivars harvested in a paddy field. The experimental design was a randomized block design with three replicates. The treatments consisted of seven Italian ryegrass cultivars (Kogreen, Kowinmaster, Hwasan 101, Kowinnearly, Kospeed, Sahalie select, and Strike). The planting date was October 21, 2009 and the sample harvest was occurred on May 21, 2010. Dry matter yield was higher in Kowinnerary and Kogreen than in the other varieties (p<0.05). Crude protein and ether extract contents were highest in Hwasan 101 and lowest in Kospeed. The content of total digestible nutrients did not differ among the Italian ryegrass varieties. The amino acid contents were in the order Hwasan 101 > Strike > Kowinnearly > Kogreen > Sahalie select > Kospeed > Kowinnearly (p<0.05). Fructose content was highest in Kospeed, while glucose and sucrose contents were highest in Hwasan 101. The results of this study indicate that Kowinnearly, in terms of dry matter yield, and Hwasan 101, in terms of feed value (chemical composition and free sugar content), may be recommended for forage production in a paddy field.

This study was aimed to find yield prediction model of Italian ryegrass using climate big data and geographic information. After that, mapping the predicted yield results using Geographic Information System (GIS) as follows; First, forage data were collected; second, the climate information, which was matched with forage data according to year and location, was gathered from the Korean Metrology Administration (KMA) as big data; third, the climate layers used for GIS were constructed; fourth, the yield prediction equation was estimated for the climate layers. Finally, the prediction model was evaluated in aspect of fitness and accuracy. As a result, the fitness of the model (R2) was between 27% to 95% in relation to cultivated locations. In Suwon (n=321), the model was; DMY = 158.63AGD –8.82AAT +169.09SGD - 8.03SAT +184.59SRD -13,352.24 (DMY: Dry Matter Yield, AGD: Autumnal Growing Days, SGD: Spring Growing Days, SAT: Spring Accumulated Temperature, SRD: Spring Rainfall Days). Furthermore, DMY was predicted as 9,790±120 (kg/ha) for the mean DMY(9,790 kg/ha). During mapping, the yield of inland areas were relatively greater than that of coastal areas except of Jeju Island, furthermore, northeastern areas, which was mountainous, had lain no cultivations due to weak cold tolerance. In this study, even though the yield prediction modeling and mapping were only performed in several particular locations limited to the data situation as a startup research in the Republic of Korea.

Anaerobic digestion is a collection of naturally occurring processes that convert organic matter and liquid residue, so-called digestate. The use of digestate biofertilizers is one of the important components of integrated nutrient management, as they are renewable sources of plant nutrients for sustainable agriculture. Seeds of Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum L.) were germinated in different concentration of Chlorella in order to investigate it’s the effect of Chlorella on growth parameters, seed germination and early growth. The experiment using plug tray was conducted at the green house placed in the Sangji University. The experiment consisted of nine treatments including different concentrations of Chlorella sp. culture solution and non-treated control. The germination percentage at the treatment with 25% Chlorella sp. culture solution was greater than that of control. The 50% concentration of Chlorella sp. culture solution was found to promote a better seedling growth in terms of shoot length, fresh weight and dry weight compared to the anaerobic digestate. Results showed that the best concentration of Chlorella culture solution was achieved by the 50% concentration of Chlorella culture solution treatment. As a conclusion, the application of Chlorella culture solution was found to be able to promote the germination and shoots growth of Italian ryegrass

In order to study the effect of barley, Italian ryegrass (IRG), and legume mixture on nitrogen fixation and transfer to grasses on spring paddy field, an experiment was carried out from Oct. 2006 to June 2007 in Naju, Korea. A split plot design with three replications was used for the experiment. One reference plot was assigned for each treatment to determine nitrogen fixation. Main plots consisted of Chinese milk vetch, crimson clover, forage pea, and hairy vetch with barley, respectively. Subplot treatment were barley or IRG with four seeding ratio of legumes (50:50, 60:40, 70:30, and 80:20). To estimate N fixation by legumes, 15N isotope dilution technique was used. 15N fertilizer [(15NH4)2SO4 solution at 99.8 atom N] was uniformly applied to 600 cm2 in the middle of each plot on April 15, 2007. Plots were harvest by hand on June 8, 2007. Dried sample were ground to a fine power and analyzed for total N isotope N. 15N was determined using elemental analyzer-isotope ratio mass spectrometry. The calculation of N transfer was determined with the isotope dilution method. The content of N was higher in legumes than that in barley or Italian ryegrass. Nitrogen level in forage pea was significantly higher than that of other legumes. There were significantly differences in N content between legumes in IRG mixture. Atom % 15N excess was significantly different in legumes with barley. The 60:40 sub plot had higher (p<0.05) atom % 15N than other seeding ratio treatments. The enrichment ranged from 0 to 0.58. Compared to barley, the enrichment of IRG with its accompanied legumes was higher, ranging from 0.38 to 1.0. The N derived from the atmosphere (Ndfa) ranged from 0% to 49.5% with barley-legume mixture. It ranged from 0 to 60.5% in IRG-legume plots. N transfer from legumes to neighboring grasses was 12.3 to 90.9 kg/ha for barley-legume mixture and 31.7 to 107.8 kg/ha for IRG plots. IRG plots showed higher N transfer for IRG-legume mixture in general based on difference method. Based on 15N dilution method, the N transfer was 0 to 36.1 kg/ha for barley-legume mixture and 0 to 50.6 kg/ha for IRG plots. There was a tendency toward higher N transfer on the difference method than that of the 15N dilution method.

The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of microbial culture supplements on ruminal fermentation and fermentative quality of Italian ryegrass silage (IRGS) both in vitro and in situ. Three species of microbes (Lactobacillus casei (LC), Bacillus subtilis (BS), and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (SC)) were used in this study. They were applied to IRGS at 30 days after silage manufacture. Various items were measured using in vitro and in situ incubation technique after each microbial supplement was inoculated into IRGS at 0.5×104 CFU/g. In the first experiment, in vitro ruminal fermentation characteristics of IRGS were evaluated at 0, 12, 24, 48, and 72 hours after microbes were inoculated into IRGS. In the second experiment, in situ fermentation characteristics were investigated at 0, 1, 3, and 5 days after the inoculation of each microbial supplement. In vitro ruminal NH3-N content was significantly (p<0.05) increased in LC-, BS-, and SC-IRGS at 12 hrs post incubation compared to that in control IRGS. In vitro ruminal total VFA concentration and dry matter digestibility (DMD) of IRGS were not significantly difference among LC-, BS-, and SC-IRGS, although they were numerically increased in LC-IRGS than those of the other IRGS. In addition, this study evaluated the fermentation characteristics and in situ DMD of IRGS with the lapse of incubation time up to 5 days. Throughout the incubation times from 1 day to 5 days, the pH value was significantly (p<0.05) lower in BS-, LC-, and SC-IRGS than that in control IRGS. Lactate was significantly (p<0.05) higher, and significantly (p<0.05) butyrate was lower in LC-IRGS than that in other treatments at 0 day. It was higher (p<0.05) in control IRGS than that of BS-, LC-, and SC-IRGS at 1-5 days. In situ DMD tended to increase in BS-, LC-, and SC-IRGS compared to that in control IRGS. Especially, DMD was higher in SC-IRGS than that in other treatments at 0 day. It tended to be higher in LC-IRGS at all incubation time. Taken together, these results suggest that it might be useful to select a microorganism by considering the feeding time of IRGS to ruminants because organic acids and DMD of IRGS were affected by the incubation time of each microorganism with IRG silage, especially for L. casei decreased the content of acetate and butyrate in IRGS.

This study was carried out to determine the effects of application levels of fertilizer and sowing methods on yields and nutritive values of Italian ryegrass (IRG) in early spring. Five fertilizer levels were used: Treatment 1, 100-80-80 kg/ha; Treatment 2, 120-100-100 kg/ha; Treatment 3, 140-120-120 kg/ha; Treatment 4, 160-140-140 kg/ha; Treatment 5, 140-120-120 kg/ha of N-P2O5-K2O with silicate fertilizer 200 kg/ha. Dry matter (DM) yield was 8,330 kg/ha in Treatment 5, 7,686 kg/ha in Treatment 4, and 7,347 kg/ha in Treatment 3. There was no significant difference in total digestible nutrients (TDN) content. The content of crude protein was the highest in Treatment 5. Dry matter ratio was the lowest in Treatment 5. In Treatment 3, DM yield was 7,347 kg/ha, when total amounts of fertilizers were applied at one time. However, DM yield was 7,405 kg/ha, when 50% of pre-planting fertilizer and 50% of supplementary fertilizer were applied at different time. There was no significant difference between total application and split application of fertilizers. However, DM yield was 9,469 kg/ha in application treatment with 100 kg/ha of additional urea at three to four leaf stages of IRG. Regarding DM yield by sowing methods of IRG, the following order was found: drill seeding (8,176 kg/ha) > rotary-broadcast seeding-stamping (7,957 kg/ha) > rotary-broadcast seeding (7,810 kg/ha) > broadcast seeding (7,347 kg/ha) > broadcast seeding-rotary (7,034 kg/ha). DM yield (59.57%) was the lowest in broadcast seedingrotary. Crude protein content was the highest with rotary work but the lowest with broadcast seeding.

This study was conducted to determine the effect of rainfall after cutting on nutritive value of Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) hay. Fresh Italian ryegrass was treated with 3 days natural rainfall (56.5, 14.0 and 1.6 mm) after cutting without tedding. Rainfall effect on Italian ryegrass quality was evaluated based on Neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF), crude protein (CP), crude fat (CF), crude ash (CA) and non-fiber carbohydrate (NFC). The quality of Italian ryegrass was decreased with extending raining days. The content of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) was increased from 0.4 to 4.7% by 1 day advancement in raining. CF content was decreased from 8.1 to 32.8%. CP and CA contents did not change, but NFC content was decreased from 0.5 to 8.4%. The quality damage by the number of raining days after cutting Italian ryegrass was the lowest on the first day from exposure to rain.

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of harvesting time of rice on growth characteristics and dry matter yields of Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam., IRG) ‘Kowinearly’ after seeding them in paddy field. Experiments were performed in National Institute of Animal Science, RDA (Cheonan, Choongcheongnam-do province of Korea) for four years (2011~2014). Italian ryegrass variety ‘Kowinearly’ was seeded at experimental paddy fields before rice harvest in late September. Rice were harvested at 10, 20, and 30 days after seeding of IRG. As the harvest time of rice became later, the number of tillering before winter was reduced and IRG plant length before winter was shorter. The dry matter yield of IRG was also reduced. When rice were harvested at 20 days and 30 days after sowing of IRG compared to the rice harvested in autumn at 10 days after sowing of IRG, the number of tillering for IRG before winter was decreased by an average of 19% and 40%, respectively. The winter survival ratio of IRG was decreased by an average of 13% and 19%, respectively. Their dry matter yields were also reduced by an average of 8% and 19%, respectively. The heading date was different from each other in three years. The plant length at the time of IRG harvest in the spring was not significantly different among treatment groups. Taken together, our results suggest that when Italian ryegrass is grown in paddy fields by the method of ‘seeding of IRG before rice harvest’, rice should be harvested as soon as possible after sowing of IRG ‘Kowinearly’ in the autumn to increase forage productivity.

This study was conducted to evaluate the growth characteristics and dry matter yields of Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam., IRG) cultivars for three years (2011~2013). The cold-resistance of domestic cultivars was stronger than other foreign varieties. Among early-maturing cultivars, dry matter (DM) yield of ‘Kowinearly’ was significantly higher (8,751 kg/ha) than other cultivars (p<0.05). In medium-maturing cultivars, DM yield of ‘Kowinmaster’ and ‘Tam 90’ was 9,394 and 7,461 kg/ha, respectively. Of the two, the former’s DM yield was higher than the latter’s (p<0.05). Among late-maturing cultivars, DM yield of ‘Hwasan 104’ (9,809 kg/ha) was similar to ‘Hwasan 101’ (9,354 kg/ha), but significantly higher than the other late-maturing cultivars (p<0.05). According to the results obtained from present study, early-maturing cultivars with cold-tolerance and high productivity is required for the paddy field cultivation of an Italian ryegrass cultivar after rice harvest in Cheonan region. Medium- and late-maturing cultivars are more advantageous for the dry field cultivation of the maximum quantity that is possible. In conclusion, to select which cultivar/s to grow, the climate of the growing area, weather conditions, and the cropping system must all be considered