Harvest management of Aeschynomene evenia
2001
Mislevy, P. | Martin, F. G.
Aeschynomene evenia C. Wright (evenia) is a newly selected, short-lived perennial tropical legume being grown on a limited basis by central Florida cattlemen. However, little or no information is available regarding its management practices. This experiment was conducted from 1996 to 1998 to determine the influence of initial harvest height (30, 60, and 90 cm) and regrowth harvest height (30, 60, and 90 cm) on seasonal biomass production, crude protein (CP), in vitro organic matter digestion (IVOMD), and stem no. plant⁻¹. Neither initial nor regrowth harvest had a major influence on annual dry biomass (DB) production when pooled over 1996 and 1997 averaging 5.7 Mg ha⁻¹. Crude protein concentration, IVOMD, and stem no. plant⁻¹ generally followed a quadratic relationship for both initial and regrowth harvest heights. Pooled CP, IVOMD, and stem no. averaged 224, 198, and 206 g kg⁻¹ CP; 625, 581, 571 g kg⁻¹ IVOMD; and 20, 16, and 14 stems plant⁻¹ for initial and regrowth harvest height of 30, 60, and 90 cm, respectively. Due to a frost-free winter, evenia plants lived-over from 1997 to 1998 and were exposed to similar harvest treatments. Dry biomass yields for the live-over plants were 1.6 Mg ha⁻¹ higher than for plants seeded annually (2 yr avg.). Crude protein was similar (seeded 209 (2 yr avg.) and live-over 208 g kg⁻¹), however, IVOMD was significantly lower 592 for seeded vs. 529 g kg⁻¹ for live-over plants. These data indicate that evenia has good forage production and nutritional value and good live-over characteristics during frost-free winters.
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