Yield and digestibility of forages in East Indonesia  II. Grasses

Bulo, D.; Blair, G. J.; Till, A. R.; Stür, W.

doi:1994.7.3.335

Article

Ruminant Nutrition and Forage Utilization

Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences 1994;7(3): 335-342.
https://doi.org/10.5713/ajas.1994.335 Published online September 1, 1994.

Yield and digestibility of forages in East Indonesia II. Grasses

D. Bulo, G. J. Blair, A. R. Till, W. Stür

Abstract

This study was undertaken at Gowa, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, as part of a larger forage genetic resource evaluation project. The experimental program consisted of a field experiment where grass and legume species were grown in monocultures and the dry matter yield, rumen bag digestibility (RBDMD) and N content of leaf and stem components were monitored in the wet and dry seasons. Eight species of grass (Brachiaria decumbens cv. Basilisk, Panicum maximum cv. Riversdale, Urochloa pullulans CPI 41192, Imperata cylindrical from Maiwa, South Sulawesi, Digitaria milanjiana CPI 41193, Cenchrus ciliaris cv. Malopo, Heteropogon contortus and Setaria sphacelata cv. Splenda) were studied. P. maximum was the highest yielding grass in the wet season and B. decumbens in the dry season. The highest RBDMD in the whole plants were U. pullulans, P. maximum, S. sphacelata and D. milanjiana after 2 weeks regrowth in cycle 1 and S. sphacelata, B. decumbens, D. milanjiana and C. ciliaris in cycle 2. When total digestible DM was calculated for the whole of cycle 1, P. maxiumu, B. decumbens and S. sphacelata were superior, but B. decumbens produced over twice as much as the other species in the dry season (cycle 2). The leaf N concentration of all grasses exceeded 1.0% (6.25% crude protein) in the regrowth in cycle 1 but did not exceed 0.5% in the dry season regrowth (cycle 2).

Keywords: Grasses; DM Yield; Rumen Bag Digestibility