| Livestock Research for Rural Development 34 (5) 2022 | LRRD Search | LRRD Misssion | Guide for preparation of papers | LRRD Newsletter | Citation of this paper |
This study aimed to evaluate the effectt of nitrogen fertilizer on the yield and chemical composition of Paspalum grass (Paspalum atratum). The experiment was arranged in a complete randomized design with 4 treatments and 3 replicates. The treatments were levels of urea nitrogrn of 0, 30, 60 and 90 kg/ha.
There were no effects of N fertilizer level on chemical compositions of Paspalum grass, but harvest yield was increased with a curvilinear trend showing that the optimum level of urea nitrogen fertilizer was add about 50Kg N/ha.
Key words: biomass, fertilization, grass, nitrogen
In the Mekong delta (MD) there are some 1.3 million ruminants including cattle, goat, buffalo and sheep. They are mainly fed natural grasses and agro-indutry byproducts. Improveed grassland is very limited due to most of the land is used for production of rice and other crops (Thu 2021). There is a lack of grass for ruminants during the flooding season as the low land suffers water-logging (Long et al 2010). Thus, there is a real need to prompte grasses which are able to tolerate the flooding and produce biomass for ruminant feed.
In a study in An Giang province, Diem (2008) concluded that the Paspalum grass(Paspalum atratum) could tolerate a 20 cm depth of water for 30 days without negstove effects of its physiological status. Tu (2013) also indicated that the Paspalum grass was a suitable feed for cattle with 11% crude protein and 50 - 68% DM digestibility.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of different levels of N fertilizer on the biomass yield and quality of Paspalum grass.
The experiment was conducted in Hung Loi ward, Ninh Kieu district of Can Tho City, Vietnam from April 2019 to April 2020
An agronomic study over 6 months compared 4 levels of N fertilizer (0, 30, 60and 90 kg N/ha) on yield and cpompositiof Paspalum grass. The oil contained 80-100% sand, 0-10% humus and 0-10% clay. It is considered as having high water permeability with low concentrations of organic matter and other soil nutrients (Viet Linh 2020). A total of 12 experimental plots (2.0 x 6.0 m) were arranged in a randomized design with 4 treatments and 3 replications (Photo 1). The treatments were 0, 30, 60 and 90 kg N/ha/year as urea.
The plots were harvested (Photo 1) at 45 day intervals to evaluatte yield and composition using AOAC (1990) methods (Table 1). Neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) were determined following procedures described by Van Soest et al (1991).
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| Photo 1. Paspalum atratum grass planted and harvested in the experiment |
Data were analyzed using the general linear mode procedure of Minitab 18.1 (Minitab 2018).
Fertilzing Paspalum grass with urea nitrogen had no effect on the composition of the grass but increased yield of dry matter organic matter and crude protein (Table 1). The yield responses to urea-N were curvilinear (Figures 1 and 2), with optimum responses at urea nitrogen levels of 50 kg/ha. Similar findings were reported by Kalmbacher et al (1997) and Kien (2010).
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Table 1. Mean values for chemical compositions of paspalum grass I three successive harvestsin three cutting |
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|
DM |
OM |
CP |
EE |
NDF |
ADF |
Ash |
||
|
1st harvest |
As % in DM |
|||||||
|
0N |
17.0 |
87.2 |
10.6 |
3.63 |
57.8 |
31.1 |
12.8 |
|
|
30N |
16.9 |
87.4 |
10.8 |
3.47 |
58.3 |
29.4 |
12.6 |
|
|
60N |
16.7 |
87.1 |
10.9 |
3.44 |
60.1 |
33.9 |
12.9 |
|
|
90N |
17.5 |
89.3 |
11.0 |
3.23 |
60.2 |
33.8 |
10.7 |
|
|
p |
0.40 |
0.147 |
0.610 |
0.436 |
0.277 |
0.164 |
0.147 |
|
|
SE |
0.298 |
0.661 |
0.262 |
0.170 |
0.971 |
1.47 |
0.662 |
|
|
2nd harvest |
||||||||
|
0N |
17.1 |
88.9 |
10.6 |
3.56 |
59.0 |
35.6 |
11.1 |
|
|
30N |
17.3 |
89.9 |
10.8 |
3.60 |
59.1 |
36.0 |
10.1 |
|
|
60N |
16.7 |
89.0 |
10.8 |
4.03 |
60.6 |
36.1 |
11.0 |
|
|
90N |
17.1 |
89.5 |
10.9 |
4.33 |
59.9 |
35.2 |
10.5 |
|
|
p |
0.374 |
0.043 |
0.372 |
0.309 |
0.607 |
0.903 |
0.043 |
|
|
SE |
0.230 |
0.221 |
0.093 |
0.312 |
0.912 |
1.00 |
0.223 |
|
|
3rd harvest |
||||||||
|
0N |
17.2 |
89.1 |
10.5 |
3.37 |
60.8 |
35.8 |
10.9 |
|
|
30N |
17.2 |
88.7 |
10.7 |
3.99 |
60.5 |
33.4 |
11.3 |
|
|
60N |
16.9 |
88.7 |
10.9 |
3.41 |
58.0 |
32.5 |
11.3 |
|
|
90N |
17.0 |
89.3 |
11.1 |
4.42 |
64.0 |
33.3 |
10.7 |
|
|
p |
0.612 |
0.652 |
0.232 |
0.115 |
0.087 |
0.762 |
0.652 |
|
|
SE |
0.162 |
0.41 |
0.181 |
0.312 |
1.39 |
211 |
0.410 |
|
| DM: dry matter, OM: organic matter, CP: crude protein, EE: ether, NDF: neutral detergent, ADF: fiber acid. 0N, 30N, 60N and 90N: included nitrogen fertilizer levels of 0, 30, 60 and 90 kg nitrogen/ha/year Yield of fresh matter (FM), dry matter (DM) and crude protein | ||||||||
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Table 2. Effect of N levels on FM, DM and CP yield of Paspalum grass |
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|
Harvest |
0N |
30N |
60N |
90N |
p |
SEM |
||
|
FM yield, t/ha |
||||||||
|
1 |
15.1b |
18.7ab |
19.9a |
16.9ab |
0.026 |
0.901 |
||
|
2 |
16.5b |
20.9a |
21.6a |
18.9ab |
0.001 |
0.612 |
||
|
3 |
16.0c |
21.4ab |
22.3a |
17.4bc |
0.009 |
1.08 |
||
|
DM yield, t/ha |
||||||||
|
1 |
2.57 |
3.17 |
3.32 |
2.95 |
0.054 |
0.162 |
||
|
2 |
2.81b |
3.62a |
3.61a |
3.23ab |
0.001 |
0.091 |
||
|
3 |
2.76b |
3.67a |
3.78a |
2.96ab |
0.011 |
0.192 |
||
|
CP yield, t/ha |
||||||||
|
1 |
0.273 |
0.344 |
0.364 |
0.326 |
0.108 |
0.021 |
||
|
2 |
0.299b |
0.390a |
0.390a |
0.352a |
0.001 |
0.012 |
||
|
3 |
0.291b |
0.392a |
0.411a |
0.329ab |
0.014 |
0.021 |
||
| a, b, c Means with different letters within the same rows were significantly different at the 5% level | ||||||||
 |
 |
| Figure 1. Effect of level of urea-N fertilizer level on DM yield | Figure 2. Effect of level of urea-N fertilizer level on yield of crude protein |
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