A. Halim, R.

Universiti Putra Malaysia Institutional Repository

FOR Category F10900: AgricuHural SciencesPRODUCTION OF FODDER GRASSES ANDLEGUMES IN INTENSIVE RUMINANT PRODUCTIONSYSTEMR.A.'HalimFaculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal ScienceUniversiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor,MalaysiaKeywords: king grass.Jeucaena.gliricidia ;intercropping.IntroductionLand size is a constraint faced by many ruminant' livestockproducers. To maximise fodder production in a limited landarea, fast-growing grasses are often planted with heavy ap-plication of nitrogen fertilisers. In grazed pastures, legumesare sometimes used in place of nitrogen fertilisers but this isnot commonly practised for cut fodder. King grass (Pen-nisetum purpuroides) is a high-yielding fodder grass hybridbetween napier grass (P. purpureum) and.pearl millet·(P. ty-phoides). The objective of this project is to compare forageproduction and quality of king grass planted with legumeswith that grown as nitrogen-fertilised pure swards. Twoshrub-type legumes were used, namely Leucaena leuco-cephala (Leucaena) and Gliricidia sepium (Gliricidia). Useof legumes in place of inorganic nitrogen will reduce pro-duction costs besides curbing environmental pollution fromsurplus nitrates draining into waterways.Materials and MethodsThe experiment was conducted in an' area' with an existing aS-yr old stand of leucaena andgliricidia. Treatments com-prised i) Kinggrass alone without N fertiliser (control), ii)King grass with 300 kg/ha N, iii) King grass in interrows ofgliricidia, iv) King grass in interrows of leucaena, v) Gliri-cidia grown alone, and vi) Leucaena grown alone. Plot sizewas 9m x 4m and planting rows were 1 m apart. Foliage ofgrasses and legumeswere-harvested at 6 weekly intervalsover a period of 21 months. A total of 15 harvests was takenduring the course of the experiment. Harvested sampleswere weighed after drying and analysed for protein, neutral-detergent fibre (NDF), acid-detergent fibre (ADF) and ligninconcentrations.Results and DiscussionYield of king grass planted in interrows of either legume wassignificantly higher than that grown alone even with fertiliserN. Dry matter yield of king grass in t/ha/year (sole-cropequivalent) was 35.5, 36.8 for those planted with gliricidiaand leucaena, respectively. When planted alone, king grassyielded 22.5 and 17.0 t/ha/yr with and without N fertilisers,respectively. In' addition, king grass planted with legumesgave a significantly greater protein content (8.4%) comparedto those grown alone (6.4%). No difference was found be-tween treatments in terms of NDF and ADF and lignin con-centrations. The results indicate that planting king grass ininterrows of legumes was beneficial not only in terms of drymatter yield but also its nutritive quality, The positive ef-fects of legumes may not arise solely from its nitrogen-fixingcapability as yield and protein concentration of N-fertilisedking.grass were inferior to those planted with legumes. Thedeeper roots of legumes which had been planted earlier mayenhance grass growth through reduced plant competition forwater and nutrients. The legumes may also be able to bringup nutrients from the lower horizons of the soil. Dry matteryield of legume forage (between 5 to 7 t/ha/yr) was not sig-nificantly affected by the presence of king grass in the inter-rows. .This supports the view that the two species are com-peting for different 'space' and.the benefit-to one species isnot at the detriment of the other.ConclusionsPlanting king grass in the interrows of shrub legumes bringsbenefit to the livestock farmer in terms of increased yield andprotein content. In addition to the grass, he also has access toa protein bank provided by the leguminous forage.Supported by IRPA Grant 01 -02-04-019945

Production of fodder grasses and legumes in intensive ruminant production system

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Production of fodder grasses and legumes in intensive ruminant production system

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