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Biomass Yield and Quality of Reed Canarygrass under Five Harvest Management Systems for Bioenergy Production

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Abstract

Reed canarygrass, Phalaris arundinacea L., produces high biomass yields in cool climates and wetlands. The number and timing of harvests during a growing season directly affect biomass yield and biofuel quality. In order to determine optimum harvest management, seven cultivars of reed canarygrass were planted in field experiments at Ames, IA; McNay, IA; and Arlington, WI in the upper Midwestern USA and harvested once in autumn or in winter, twice in spring + autumn or spring + winter, or three times during the season as hay. Biomass yield varied considerably among harvest treatments, locations, and years, ranging up to 12.6 Mg ha−1. Dry matter percentage ranged from 37% for spring-harvested biomass to 84% for overwintered biomass. The three harvest hay and two harvest spring + autumn managements produced the highest biomass yield compared to other systems, but the advantage, if any, of hay management was small and probably does not justify the cost of additional fieldwork. More mature biomass, such as that found in the single harvest systems, had higher fiber concentrations. Overwintered biomass had superior biofuel quality, being low in P, K, S, and Cl and high in cell wall concentration. However, winter harvest systems had lower yield than autumn harvest and in some years, no harvest was possible due to lodging from snow compaction. The main limitation of a two harvest system is the high moisture content of the late spring/early summer biomass.

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Abbreviations

NDF:

Neutral detergent fiber

ADF:

Acid detergent fiber

ADL:

Acid detergent lignin

CP:

Crude protein

IVDMD:

In vitro dry matter disappearance

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Feedstock Development Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory under contract 90X-SY510V with Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa (to ECB) and Hatch-formula funds at the University of Wisconsin (to MDC). The authors would like to thank Mark Downing and Sandy McLaughlin at ORNL, Mark Smith on the ISU breeding program, Andy Beal of the UW breeding program, and John Sellers, Marty Braster, and Jim Cooper at the Chariton Valley RC&D for their assistance with this project. Thanks also to Trish Patrick who helped with the biomass quality analysis.

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Correspondence to E. Charles Brummer.

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Tahir, M.H.N., Casler, M.D., Moore, K.J. et al. Biomass Yield and Quality of Reed Canarygrass under Five Harvest Management Systems for Bioenergy Production. Bioenerg. Res. 4, 111–119 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-010-9105-3

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