ABSTRACT

Tagasaste (Chamaecytisus palmensis) is an evergreen, hardy leguminous shrub that is adapted to high lands of Ethiopia. The objective of this study was to evaluate nutritive value and field growth performance of tree lucerne as influenced by different harvesting management. To conduct the present study Lemo district southern, Ethiopia were selected. From the selected district two kebeles were purposely selected to be used as research area. The fodder plants were subjected initially to two cutting heights (1m and 1.5m), and three harvesting frequencies (2, 3, 4 times per year). Tree Lucerne showed fast growth in terms of height and root collar diameter after six months. Annual biomass production was considerably greater for six months harvesting interval than for the more frequent harvests in a range of 4.185 to 8.27 t ha–1. Whereas, the two cutting heights do not show significant (p<0.05) differences in yield. Leaf proportion of the biomass yield consistently decreased from 63.55 to 54.52% and the stem increased from 2.38 to 16.54% as the cutting interval prolonged from three to six months, respectively. The crude protein contents for the month of June (28%) was significantly (p<0.05) higher than that of October (24.6%), whereas, the other months had intermediate value. There were no significant (p<0.05) differences in IVOMD and ME contents among the different cutting months. The current study revealed that tree Lucerne can be a suitable protein supplement predominantly for ruminant animal in the study areas. Keywords: Tree Lucerne, Biomass, Tagasaste, cutting frequencies, biomass
Publication date: 01/12/2021

https://ijbpas.com/pdf/2021/December/MS_IJBPAS_2021_DEC_SPCL_20351.pdf

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https://doi.org/10.31032/IJBPAS/2021/10.12.2035