Table 7.

Effects of soil moisture content on overwintering seedling development index and yield.

Year	Drought (Days)	Relative Water Content (%)	Regrowth Rate (%)	Sprouting Bud Stem Rate (%)	Seedling Development Index (%)	Initiation Heading to Full Heading (Days)	First-Season Yield (kg/ha)	Second-Season Forage Yield (kg ha−1)
2019	CK	99.99 a	77.31 d	68.24 d	52.76 d	22.36 c	4929.30 d	5376.90 d
	D30	92.36 b	82.65 c	76.89 c	63.55 c	19.72 b	6625.95 c	5592.15 c
	D60	85.22 c	92.87 b	81.06 b	75.28 b	16.94 a	7788.90 b	6278.25 b
	D90	78.85 d	99.34 a	85.44 ab	84.83 a	14.68 a	8612.25 a	6845.40 a
	D120	67.91 e	100.00 a	86.48 a	86.48 a	14.85 a	8546.70 a	6900.60 a
2020	CK	99.99 a	83.17 d	71.43 d	59.41 d	20.57 c	4608.45 d	4906.05 d
	D30	88.45 b	86.26 c	79.18 c	68.30 c	17.33 b	6201.91 c	5208.90 c
	D60	81.31 c	95.87 b	85.67 b	82.13 b	14.56 a	7300.05 b	5976.75 b
	D90	74.77 d	100.00 a	88.03 ab	88.03 a	13.94 a	8296.24 a	6540.45 a
	D120	68.84 e	100.00 a	91.92 a	91.92 a	13.67 a	8227.82 a	6772.65 a
Analysis of variance
Year (Y)		ns	ns	**	**	**	**	**
Drought treatment (D)		**	**	**	**	**	**	**
Y × D		ns	ns	**	**	**	**	**

Note: Different lowercase letters in the same column indicate significant differences up to the 0.05 level. ** denote significant differences at the 0.05 and 0.01 probability levels, respectively, as determined using ANOVA. ns denotes non-significance based on ANOVA.