Effect of Planting Pattern and Cutting Height on In Vitro Digestibility and in Sacco Degradability of Napier Grass Mixed with Silver Leaf Desmodium at Bako, Western Ethiopia
Keywords:
Cutting height, Planting patterns, Napier grass, Silver leaf Desmodium, BakoAbstract
In vitro digestibility and in sacco dry matter (DM) degradability of Napier grass/silver leaf Desmodium mixtures were carried out using 3X2 factorial experiment arranged in randomized complete block design with three replications. The treatments were three levels of stubble cutting heights (20cm, 30cm, and 40cm) and two levels of planting patterns (same row and alternate row). For the legume component DM disappearance after 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours of incubation significantly (p<0.05) increased with increasing cutting heights (20cm to 40cm) during second year production season. Both factors had no significant effect on DM disappearance and most of degradability characteristics of the grass component during first year, however, in vitro DM digestibility was higher ( (p<0.05) for alternate than same row planting pattern and increased significantly (p<0.01) with increasing cutting height. During second year, alternate row planting pattern showed higher (p<0.05) DM disappearance after 48, 72 and 96 hours of incubation. Significant difference for DM degradation between cutting heights were observed for 72 and 96 hours of incubation. Among degradability characteristics, slowly fermentable fraction significantly increased (p<0.05) with increasing cutting height. The in vitro DM digestibility of the second season harvest of grass followed similar trend of the first harvest grass component.
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