The objective of this study was to estimate the effect of three sowing dates: October (early), November (normal) and December (late), on the phenological, yield and qualitative traits of four sunflower hybrids: Rumbosol-91 (forage), M-734 (double purpose), C-11 (double purpose) and BRS-191 (grain) grown for silage making. A 4 x 3 factorial treatment combination (four hybrids x three sowing dates) was allocated in a randomized block design with four replications. The October sowing brought about longer cycle, higher plant height, and smaller seed head diameter and contribution due to the prevailing climatic conditions of lower temperature, insolation and photoperiod during the crop growth period. The Rumbosol-91 and BRS-191 hybrids sowed in November showed higher lodging plus stalk breaking proportion of about 49.6 and 65.7%, respectively. The BRS-191 and M-734 hybrids sowed in December showed higher biomass yields of 39.71 and 43.76 t ha-1 fresh matter and 11.31 and 11.41 t ha-1 drymatter, respectively. While the CP content increased, the NDF, ADF and ADL contents decreased from the stem, to the leaf and to the head plant fractions. The whole plant DM values ranged from 23.2% in the Rumbosol-91 hybrid sowed in November to 47.9% in the C-11 hybrid sowed in December, indicating that the hybrids have differentiated moisture retention capacity at similar physiologic maturity of the culture (R-9 phase). The CP values ranged from 7.0 to 15.7%, an evidence of the high protein content of the culture. The ADL values of the whole plant ranged among 6.5 to 12.4%, with lowest values for the M-734 hybrid sowed in December and C-11 hybrid sowed in October. The M-734 hybrid sowed in December has better relationship among phenology, yield and bromatological composition, traits required for the making of high quality silage.
agronomic characteristics; biomass yield; head; Helianthus annuus
