Comparison of forage and grain production of Rye, barley, triticale and vetch in dry farming conditions

In order to compare forage and grain production of rye with barley, triticale and vetch under dry farming conditions, an experiment was conducted with eight treatments (including rye, wild rye, triticale, barley, as well as hungarian vetch mixed with rye, wild rye, triticale and barley) in a randomized complete block design with 3 replications in 3 years. In the first year, the highest forage and grain yields were produced by rye (1821 kg.ha-1) and barley (771 kg.ha-1), respectively. In the second year, rye had the highest forage (4828 kg.ha-1) and grain (1159 kg.ha-1) productions. In the third year, triticale could produce the greatest forage (2813 kg.ha-1) and grain (959 kg.ha-1). The production variation among the different treatments was mainly because of precipitation variations among the years. It can be concluded that, with adequate rainfall (above 300 mm), rye has better ability to produce forage and grain. With 250-300 mm, triticale could compete with rye. With declining precipitation to less than 200 mm, barley had better potential to produce grain. Meanwhile, rye and triticale had more protein than barley and wild rye.