Influence of the fungicide strobilurin on forage rye production under different harvesting systems

The goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of successive harvests, with or without application of foliar fungicide, on the morphometric characteristics, yield and nutritional value of rye forage harvested at the hard dough grain stage, aiming at silage production. The preventive control of foliar diseases was carried out with the fungicide OrkestraTM SC®, in a single application, at early flowering, for both harvesting systems. The first harvest was conducted at the full vegetative stage and the second, at the hard dough grain stage. The system with two harvests resulted in higher cumulative yield compared with the single-harvest system (40,680 and 9,029 kg ha-1 fresh and dry biomass with two harvests, against 8,816 and 5,375 kg ha-1 fresh and dry biomass). Fungicide application promoted a reduction in neutral detergent fiber content in both systems, with values of 753.9 against 790.6 g kg-1 for the single-harvest system and 734.4 against 773.3 g kg-1 for the two-harvest system, with and without fungicide, respectively. For lignin content, the application of the fungicide reduced values (97.2 against 110.3 g kg-1) only in the two-harvest system. Rye management with a harvest at the vegetative stage increases the cumulative dry biomass yield without negatively affecting the harvest yield at the hard dough grain stage, and without drastic changes in the nutritional value of the plant. Even under adverse conditions, fungicide application positively interferes with plant cell wall components