Effect of Nitrogen and Variety on Quality Performance of Rhodes Grass (Chloris gayana Kunth) in the Sudan
An experiment was conducted in Shambat (2016- 2017) in the demonstration farm of the College of Agricultural Studies, Sudan University of Science and Technology to study the effect of variety and nitrogen fertilization on the quality performance of Rhodes grass. Two Rhodess grass varieties (Fine Cut and Reclaimer) and three nitrogen levels (60kgN/ha, 120kg N/ha and Control= 0.0kgN/ha) were investigated across seven cuts. The treatments were studied as factorial arrangement in Completely Randomized Design. Proximate analysis for Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF), Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF) and Crude Protein(CP) was carried out. Differences between varieties were not significant for Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF) Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF) and Crude protein (CP). Nitrogen dose and cutting age have a significant effect on NDF and ADF. Crude protein was significantly affected by cutting age but not nitrogen dose. The interaction effect of nitrogen dose and cutting age was significant for NDF and ADF. The dose 60kgN/ha gave desirable ADF percentage compared to 120kgN/ha whereas the opposite is true for NDF. Cutting age at 182 and 268 days resulted in desirable ADF percentage compared to 75 day whereas the opposite is true for NDF. Crude protein was better at cutting age of 75 day than 182 day. It was concluded that cutting age and nitrogen fertilization have significant impact on Rhodes grass digestibility and intake potential. More research is needed to study the impact of nitrogen fertilization on crude protein of Rhodes grass.
