Productivity, chemical composition and ruminal degradability of irrigated Napier grass leaves harvested at three stages of maturity

Rambau, Mashudu Daniel; Fushai, F; Baloyi, J. J.

doi:10.4314/sajas.v46i4.8

Cited by 22 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…This indicates that the water content of plants in the pasture decreases as in advancing growth. Similarly, an increase in DM content with increasing maturity in the current study was in agreement with the finding of (Rambau et al 2016) who showed that the DM content increased as the grass matured. In the present study, the DM content increased as the age matured, and higher DM was observed at the late age of maturity.…”

Section: Dry Matter Contentsupporting

confidence: 93%

Effects of fertilizer type and harvesting age on species composition, yield and chemical composition of natural pasture in the highlands of Ethiopia

2020

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Abstract. Yalew S, Asmare B, Mekuriaw Y. 2020. Effects of fertilizer type and harvesting age on species composition, yield, and chemical composition of natural pasture in the highlands of Ethiopia. Biodiversitas 21: 4999-5007. The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of fertilizer type and harvesting age on species composition, yield, and chemical composition of natural pasture in the highlands of Ethiopia. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with factorial arrangement of two factors (fertilizer and harvesting age) with five replications. The data collected from the current study were forage species composition, dry matter yield, and chemical composition of natural pasture at different ages of harvesting. Forage species composition was determined by taking representative samples and identifying species from each sampling site. The samples of natural pasture were harvested at 90 and 120 days of age, weighed, dried, and then ground after that subsamples were taken for analyses of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), ash, acid detergent fiber (ADF), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL). All the collected data were subjected to GLM ANOVA procedures of SAS version 9.0. The result indicated that all species composition and dry matter yield were significantly affected (P<0.001) by fertilizer type and harvesting ages. Higher forbs (0.66%) were found in control plot at 90 days of harvesting age. Natural pasture harvested at 120 days of harvesting and urea fertilizer application results the highest dry matter yield (DMY) (8.26 t/ha) while the lowest level (3.20 t/ha) from unfertilized plot at 90 and 120 days of harvesting. The relative proportion of legumes in the natural pasture attained its climax stage at 90 days while grass attained at 120 days of harvesting. The highest mean DMY (6.24 tone/ha) was obtained at 120 days of harvesting and the lowest (4.71 ton/ha) at 90 days of harvesting. Among the chemical composition parameters, DM, ash and CP were significantly affected (P<0.001) by both fertilizer type and harvesting age. The content of CP and ash were increased with manure fertilizer at early harvest age and were decreased with delayed harvest age. The application of fertilizer type did not significantly affect (P>0.05) NDF content of the natural pasture rather affected by stage of harvesting (P<0.001). Regardless of DM yield, better quality pasture was recorded for early (90 days) harvesting age and use of compost recommended for future natural pasture improvements as use of chemical fertilizer is relatively expensive for the majority of smallholder farmers in the highlands.

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Section: Dry Matter Contentsupporting

confidence: 93%

Effects of fertilizer type and harvesting age on species composition, yield and chemical composition of natural pasture in the highlands of Ethiopia

2020

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“…The maximum leaf number per plant was recorded from cultivar ILRI #*16800 at both harvesting time and the minimum was recorded from ILRI #*16798 both times. The present result was higher than [48] who reported that ranged from 70.6 to 104.5 per plant at stages of maturity and similar with [37] during the establishment year that ranged from 206.21 to 264.76 in different plant populations and [39] reported that cultivars had a significant effect on the number of leaves/plant. Statistical (P>0.05) difference not observed in tiller length at harvesting time.…”

Section: Agronomic Traits Of Napier Grass Cultivarssupporting

confidence: 67%

Evaluation of Improved Napier Cultivars as Livestock Feed Under Farmers Conditions in West Hararghe Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Dinkale¹,

Zewdu²,

Girma³

2021

AVS

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This study was conducted to evaluate the forage production and farmers preference as livestock feed under farmer's conditions in West Hararghe Zone of Oromia region, Ethiopia. Four improved Napier grass cultivars (ILRI cultivar number: 16801, 16800, 16798, and 16840) and local check were planted in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with six replications during the main cropping season of 2018/19. The dry matter (DM) yield, fresh biomass yield, plant height, leaf length and leaf-stem ratio and other agronomic data were measured at harvest. Farmers preference of the Napier grass cultivars as livestock feed was collected through visual and hand evaluation of the multiple ranking criteria of the cultivars based on phonological nature. The results shows that, ILRI cultivar no. 16800 was higher (P<0.01) in the leaf to stem ratio than other Napier grass cultivars tested under farmers conditions. Similarly, ILRI cultivar 16800 was higher in DM yield and fresh biomass yield (P<0.05; 16.6 t/ha and 99.40 t/ha) respectively than ILRI cultivar 16798 (11.65 t/ha and 64.53 t/ha) respectively, but similar with other cultivars. According to the farmer's and developmental agent (DA) preferences, ILRI cultivar No. 16800 scored highest (4.56) followed by ILRI cultivar No. 16840 (4.00) and ILRI cultivar No. 16801 (3.89). The lowest score was given to ILRI cultivar No. 16798 (3.11) followed by local check (3.67). The results indicated that all Napier grass cultivars was ranked beyond good performance score (>3), as an indicator for livestock feed. From this study, it is concluded that Napier grass cultivars No. 16800, 16840 and 16801 were found promising in terms of agronomic traits, DM yield and fresh biomass yield than others during main rainy season (July to September) that needs further evaluation during dry season to demonstrated and popularized as an alternative feed resources under smallholder conditions in the study areas and other places of east and West Hararghe zones of Oromia region with similar climatic and edaphic conditions.

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“…The decrease in quality with advancing stage of pasture maturity is well documented when analyzing the entire forage structure [36,[41][42][43][44]. Our data show that CP content did not change over time and energy values, represented by the TDN, but varied according to the sward.…”

Section: Decision Tree Analysissupporting

confidence: 66%

Influence of tropical pastures on grazing behavior parameters of young lambs

Poli

Hampel

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Tropical sward characteristics can alter lamb ingestive behavior. Our study evaluated the ingestive behavior of young lambs in different tropical pastures to identify which variables interfere in their grazing activity. Two years of study were carried out with 54 weaned lambs distributed in three different swards: 1) monoculture of a upright grass, guinea grass (Panicum maximum; GG); 2) monoculture of a shrubby legume pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan; PP) and 3) contiguous areas with half the paddock with GG and half with PP (GP). The experiment was set out in a randomized complete block design. Lamb ingestive behavior was observed from sunrise to sunset with records every 5 minutes. To identify the main variables that affected with the lamb grazing activity, a multivariate analysis of the Decision Tree was performed. Our results showed that there was no difference in the ingestive behavior parameters of young lambs in different swards (P > 0.05). There was interaction among the swards and the experimental periods for the variables idleness time and biting rate (P ≤ 0.05). Grazing time of the animals increased 40% with experimental period progression. The Decision Tree identified leaf:stem ratio as the variable that most influenced lamb grazing time in GG and GP swards while in the PP sward grazing time was directly related to the pasture height. The behavior of young lambs on tropical pasture is variable as there is a change in the behavioral response over time. In addition, the grazing time of these animals can be estimated by means of variables related to pasture structural characteristics (leaf:stem ratio and height) together with chemical variables.

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Productivity, chemical composition and ruminal degradability of irrigated Napier grass leaves harvested at three stages of maturity

Cited by 22 publications

References 22 publications

Effects of fertilizer type and harvesting age on species composition, yield and chemical composition of natural pasture in the highlands of Ethiopia

Effects of fertilizer type and harvesting age on species composition, yield and chemical composition of natural pasture in the highlands of Ethiopia

Evaluation of Improved Napier Cultivars as Livestock Feed Under Farmers Conditions in West Hararghe Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Influence of tropical pastures on grazing behavior parameters of young lambs

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