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Weeds, often considered a "menace" are top-notch, adroit survivors having intrinsic value as source of biodiversity and various promising uses as bio-resource. Among other benefits, their use as feed/food source or raw material is still to be explored. Weedy rice (Oryza sativa f. spontanea) a conspecific of rice has rapid growth, ability to uptake more fertilizer and produce large biomass. Lot of efforts are done for its management but little is known about its nutritive value and utilization as feed source for livestock. Therefore, the present study was carried out at Agronomic Research Area, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad in 2017 and 2018 to optimize N level and harvesting time for improving growth and silage quality of weedy rice sown as sole crop. Treatments comprised of four N levels viz: 0, 100, 120 and 140 kg ha-1 and harvesting intervals viz. 15, 25 and 35 days after heading (DAH). Weedy rice harvested at different intervals after onset of heading stage was used for making silage and analysed for nutritive value. Results depicted that, maximum plant height, fertile tillers, panicle length, kernels per panicle and LA were obtained with 120 kg ha-1 N and harvesting at 25 DAH during both years, while NDF, ADF, cellulose, and hemicellulose were highest with no fertilizer. Crude protein was highest with N application at 120 kg ha-1 and harvesting at 25 DAH. Highest nitrogen contents in plants, plant biomass, WSC, ash and DM in silage were recorded with 140 kg ha-1 N when harvested at 35 DAH. Weedy rice harvested at 25 DAH with N application at 120 kg ha-1 seems to be better combination for rational use of nutrients, better productivity and improving most of the nutritive traits of whole crop weedy rice silage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A field study was conducted to estimate the combined effects of delayed irrigations under increased Management Allowed Depletion (MAD) level and moisture conservation practices on the yield and water productivity of maize crop. The experiment was carried out at Water Management Research Center (WMRC), University of Agriculture, Jhang Road Faisalabad. Total eight treatments, including conventional ridge sowing (CRS) without mulch (CRS + no mulch), conventional ridge sowing with mulch (CRS + mulch), bed-furrow sowing (BFS) without mulch (BFS + no mulch), bed-furrow planting with mulch (BFS + mulch), bed-furrow planting without mulch and with 60% MAD (BFS + no mulch + 60% MAD), bed-furrow planting with mulch and 60% MAD (BFS + mulch + 60% MAD), bed-furrow planting without mulch and 70% MAD (BFS + no mulch + 70% MAD), bed-furrow planting with mulch and 70% MAD(BFS + mulch + 70% MAD) were randomly allocated in randomized complete block design (RCBD). Each treatment was further replicated thrice in order to reduce the experimental error. Results showed that BFS + mulch + 60% MAD treatment increased the grain yield by 23% to 25%, total dry matter (TDM) by 7% to 10%, plant height by 11% to 12% and harvest index by 16% to 19% as compared to CRS + no mulch treatment. Furthermore, BFS with 70% MAD under with and without mulch resulted a significant reduction in plant traits. Additionally, delayed irrigation application reduced the water use by maize due to decrease in application losses on BFS under wheat straw mulch. It is concluded that mulching in BFS could be beneficial to harvest maximum yield of maize under deficit as well as normal irrigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]