1Principal Scientist and P.I. AICRP on forage crops, AAU, Jorhat
2Professor, Department of Animal Physiology, CVSc., AAU, Khanapara, Guwahati-22
Department of Animal Nutrition, College of Veterinary Science, Khanapara, Guwahati-781022, Assam, India
*Corresponding author e-mail: drrobinbhuyan@yahoo.com
Online published on 24 April, 2014.
An experiment was conducted to assess the proximate composition, cell wall constituents, yield and in vitro digestibility of Congosignal (Brachiaria ruziziensis) grass harvested at three stages of growth. Two varieties (DRSB-3 and DRSB-7) were evaluated at 60, 90 and 120 days of harvesting. The in vitro DM and OM digestibility (IVDMD and IVOMD) decreased significantly (P<0.01) from 60 to 120 days of harvesting and differed significantly between varieties. Based on these results, the DRSB-7 variety rank fed higher than DRSB3 variety. The results indicate that considerable variation exists in chemical composition and digestibility of nutrients in the two varieties of Congosignal grass grown even under similar environmental conditions. Harvesting the grass at 60 days is better than harvesting at 90 and 120 days in terms of its nutrient availability.
Congosignal, Forage yield, Chemical composition, In vitro digestibility
