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