EVALUATION OF BRACHIARIA (urochloa) CULTIVARS FOR AGRONOMIC PERFORMANCE, FORAGE YIELDS AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AT DIFFERENT HARVESTING STAGES

Abstract

A study was carried out at Haramaya University ‘Rare’ site to Evaluate the agronomic performance, forage yields, and chemical composition of three Cultivars of Brachiaria (Xaraes, Piata, and Basilisks) at three harvesting stages (60, 90 and 120 days). The experiment was conducted by 3*3 factorial arrangements in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The plot size was 4 m * 3 m (12 m2 ) with a total land area of 44 m * 15 m (660 m2 ). Data were analyzed by GLM statistical analysis procedure (JMPPro16) for an analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's means separation with a 0.05 probability level was used for comparing treatment means. The collected data on agronomic performances were: Plant Height (PH), Number of Tiller (NT), Number of Leaf (NL), number of nodes (NN), Leaf length(LL), plant density (PD), basal circumstance (BC), survival rate (SR),) Forage yield parameters were: Dry Matter Yield (DMY) and Crude protein yields (CPY) and chemical composition parameters were: Crude Protein (CP), dry matter content (DM), Neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), and acid detergent lignin (ADL). The DMY, PH, NT, NL, LSR, BC, DM, CP, NDF, ADF, and ADL values varied (p<0.05) with Harvesting stages (HS). The DMY, PH, NT, NL, BC, DM, NDF, ADF and ADL increased along with days of HS, while CP content and LSR decreased. The highest DMY (30.3 t/ha), PH (128.7 cm), NL (286.8), LL (27.2 cm), BC (136 cm), DM (93.03%) and NDF (75.21%) were recorded at 120 days of HS. The highest CP content (19.1%), NT (68.1), and LSR (2.9) were recorded at 60, 60 days of regrowth, and 90 days of regrowth of HS respectively. The NT, NL, NN, LL, LSR, ADF and CP content values were variable among Cultivars. Basilisk was recorded the highest NT (73.1), NL (262.9), ADL (11.2%) and CP content (16.9%) whereas, Piatá had shown the highest SR (95.4%), BC (76cm), LL (29.5cm) and LSR (2.14). Xaraes was recorded the highest NDF (69.4%) and ADF (38.4%). The NN, ADF, and ADL were significantly (p<0.05) affected by the interaction of HS and Cultivars. Based on the results of the current study it was observed that the highest crude protein (19.1%) was recorded at 60 days of HS which indicated that the three Cultivars harvested at this stage had better nutritive values. In comparison to Piatá and Xaraes Cultivars, Basilisk had better nutritional quality due to its higher CP content (16.9%). Therefore, among the tested Cultivars, Basilisk showed outstanding potential in the current study. From this finding, it is recommended that further researches are required to evaluate the performances of these three Cultivars at different seasons, years, space and location along with in-Sacco and in vitro dry matter (IVDM) digestibiliies and animal response studies through feeding trials.