Effect of Cutting Heights on Productivity and Quality of King Napier Grass (Pennisetum purpureum cv. King Grass) under Irrigation


Authors

  • Sumran Wijitphan Khon Kaen Animal Nutrition Research and Development Center, T. Thra Pra A. Muang Khon Kaen, 40260, Thailand
  • Pornchai Lorwilai Faculty of Agriculture, Khon Kaen University, P.O. Box 40002, Thailand
  • Chutipong Arkaseang Faculty of Agriculture, Khon Kaen University, P.O. Box 40002, Thailand

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3923/pjn.2009.1244.1250

Keywords:

Cutting height, dry matter yield, irrigation, king napier grass, nutritive values

Abstract

An experiment to study the effect of cutting heights on yield and nutritive values of King napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum cv. King grass) was conducted on sandy loam, Korat soil series (Oxic Paleustults) under irrigation during June 2006 to November 2007 at Khon Kaen Animal Nutrition Development Research Center, Thailand. Four treatments of cutting height at 0 (T1), 5 (T2), 10 (T3) and 15 (T4) cm above ground level in randomized complete block design with 4 replications were employed. The results showed that the Total Dry Matter Yield (TDMY) and Average Dry Matter Yield (ADMY) (65,707.5, 67,070.0, 69,697.5 and 71,403.1 kg/ha/year ; 5,973.4, 6,096.4, 6,336.2 and 6,491.2 kg/ha/cut, respectively) were significantly higher (p<0.05) in T4 than T1. There were no significant differences in CP and DMD among treatments, ranging from 12.1-12.9 and 75.5-76.6%, respectively but the percentage of ADF, NDF and ash were highly significantly different (41.7-43.5, 64.6-66.2 and 13.1-14.7%), respectively. Based on this research, it can be concluded that cutting height can affect the forage DM yield and nutritive values of King Napier grass. Cutting 35 day interval at 15 cm height above ground level could be the optimal level for harvesting King Napier grass in Northeast of Thailand.

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Published

15.07.2009

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 8 (2009)

Section

Research Article

License

Copyright (c) 2009 Asian Network for Scientific Information

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

How to Cite

Wijitphan, S., Lorwilai, P., & Arkaseang, C. (2009). Effect of Cutting Heights on Productivity and Quality of King Napier Grass (Pennisetum purpureum cv. King Grass) under Irrigation. Pakistan Journal of Nutrition, 8(8), 1244–1250. https://doi.org/10.3923/pjn.2009.1244.1250