Yields and chemical compositions of eight forage grass species
2000
Sasithon Tinakorn | Boonrue Wilaipon | Chanchai Manidool | Worapong Suriyajantratong (Department of Livestock Development, Bangkok (Thailand). Div. of Animal Nutrition)
Experiment was carried out at Pak-Chong Animal Nutrition Research Center, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand on the Pak-Chong soil series during 15 April 1986 to 12 May 1987. The experiment design was randomized complete block with 4 replications. Treatments were 8 forage grass species: Brachiaria humidicola, B. ruzizinsis, B. miliiformis, B. decumbens, B. mutica, Panicum maximum cv. Hamil, P. maximum, and Pennisetum purpureum. Rootstocks of grasses were planted at spacing 50*50 cm, fertilizer was given twice, and weeding was done every month. Harvesting was made every 40-50 days during the wet season by cutting at 5 cm. The samples were sorted to grass and weeds, oven dried, weighed, and analysed for CP, CF, ADF and NDF. The highest dry matter herbage yield of 5 cm cutting height above ground level in the wet season was obtained from signal grass (3.63 tons/rai) which was significantly (P0.05) different from that of ruzi grass (2.94 tons/tai) and B. humidicola which produced the lowest yield (2.32 tons/rai), but was not significantly different from that of guinea grass (3.58 tons/rai), hamil grass (3.21 tons/rai) and napier grass (3.20 tons/rai). In the dry season, the dry matter herbage yields of napier and B. humidicola grasses were 1.73 and 1.70 tons/rai, respectively, and were significantly (P0.05) higher than those of other grasses. Ruzi grass produced the lowest yield (0.52 ton/rai). The highest total annual yield throughout the rainy and dry seasons was obtained from napier grass (4.93 tons/rai) but was not significantly different from that of signal grass (4.71 tons/rai). The average chemical compositions, as percentages on dry matter basis, in the rainy season of all grasses were shown as CP, ADF, CF and NDF.
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