Effect of Season and Fertilizer on Species Composition and Nutritive Value of Native Grasses

Khan, R. I.; Alam, M. R.; Amin, M. R.

doi:1999.12.8.1222

Article

Ruminant Nutrition and Forage Utilization

Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences 1999;12(8): 1222-1227.
https://doi.org/10.5713/ajas.1999.1222 Published online December 1, 1999.

Effect of Season and Fertilizer on Species Composition and Nutritive Value of Native Grasses

R. I. Khan, M. R. Alam, M. R. Amin

Abstract

Effect of three major cropping seasons and five fertilizer treatments on botanical composition, nutritional composition and in sacco digestibility of native grasses grown in 30 experimental plots of a medium fertile land was determined. It was observed that all the major grass species were grown in all seasons but their predominancy of growth was different. During the study the predominant grass species were Panicum repens (Angta), Fimvristylis miliacea (Joina), Cyanolis axillaries (Kanainala), Cynodon dactylon (Durba) and Cyperus iria (Phulchaise) which contributed about 27, 20, 13, 11 and 9% of the total grass yield, respectively. Dry matter (DM) contents was higher in dry followed by monsoon and summer seasons (p<0.05). Crude protein (CP) content in the summer and monsoon appeared to be higher (p<0.05) than that of dry season. Organic matter (OM) and neutral detergent fibre (NDF) were higher (p<0.05) in dry and monsoon than in summer season. Application of urea fertilizer and cowdung increased 28.2% of CP content of the grasses, but decreased 19.5 and 9.8% of DM and NDF contents, respectively. The potential degradation of DM and CP of the grasses grown in summer were 4.1 and 8.4% and 3.9 and 5.8% higher than those of monsoon and dry seasons, respectively, and both of these increased (11.3 and 5.9%, respectively) with the application of cowdung and urea fertilizer.

Keywords: Native Grasses; Seasons; N-Fertilizer; Nutrients; In Saccon Degradability