Evaluation of production performance and nutritional value of 15 feed barley varieties in the Liangshan Region

To screen out high-quality forage oat (Avena sativa) varieties suitable for planting in middle and low-altitude areas of the Liangshan Prefecture, we selected 15 forage oat varieties as experimental materials to comprehensively evaluate forage yield, agronomics traits, and nutritional quality of the tested varieties. The findings indicate that ‘Molasses’ achieves the highest fresh grass yield at 48 310.81 kg·ha⁻¹, whereas ‘Titan’ records the highest dry grass yield at 16 058.62 kg·ha⁻¹. ‘Youmu Ⅰ’ and ‘Molasses’ had the smallest dry/fresh ratio, and ‘Everleaf 256’ had the smallest stem/leaf ratio. The dry/fresh ratio was positively correlated with hay yield (P < 0.05), while the fresh grass yield was negatively correlated with the stem/leaf ratio (P < 0.05). The crude protein content of ‘Youmu Ⅰ’ was the highest (13.08%), lignin content was the lowest (3.25%), and total digestible nutrients content was the highest (56.33%), which was significantly different from other varieties (P < 0.05). The acid detergent fiber and neutral detergent fiber contents of the ‘Model’ were significantly lower than those of other tested materials, indicating its highest relative feeding value (P < 0.05). The relative forage quality of ‘Youmu Ⅰ’ surpasses significantly that of other tested materials (P < 0.05). A comprehensive analysis of membership function and TOPSIS (technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution) showed that ‘Molasses’, ‘Madison’, and ‘Titan’ performed the best and could be used as excellent forage oat varieties in local cultivation.