Comparative Analysis on the Biomass Production between Machine-Transplanted and Water-Broadcast Seeded Silage Rice in the Central Plain Area of Korea

Abstract

A field study was conducted over a 3-year period from 2014 to 2016 in the central plain area, Suwon, Korea, 1) to compare the biomass production between machine-transplanted and water-broadcast seeded silage rice and 2) to elucidate the growth factors that affect the difference in biomass production between the two cultivation practices. The heading date for the water-broadcast seeded silage rice was September 11-18, which was delayed by 11-17 days when compared to that for the machine-transplanted silage rice. On average, water-broadcast seeded silage rice had a shorter plant height, more panicles per area, and a greater biomass production because of the increased straw dry weight. However, the difference in dry weight of each plant organ between the two cultivation practices exhibited yearly variation. When the data were pooled across experimental years, cultivation practices, and varieties, biomass production was highly positively correlated with straw dry weight but not with panicle dry weight. When the ratio of water-broadcast seeding to machine-transplanting was analyzed, total dry weight and straw dry weight were positively associated with each other, whereas no relationship was found between total dry weight and panicle dry weight. Despite that water-broadcast seeded silage rice produced more panicles per area than machine-transplanted silage rice, the two cultivation practices had a similar dry weight per culm. Therefore, we conclude that the silage rice from the water-broadcast seeding, compared to the machine-transplanting, produced more biomass because of the combination of the increased panicle number per area and a similar dry weight per culm. These results suggest that silage rice could be produced through water-broadcast seeding to increase biomass production with low labor and cost input.