https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3918-1393
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ABSTRACT
The objective of this study was to evaluate the nutritive value of Panicum maximum and Brachiaria brizantha cultivars in terms of nutrient composition, dry matter intake, and digestibility at different harvesting stages. The factors investigated were three cultivars; Mombaca, Gutton (Panicum maximum), and Marandu (Brachiaria brizantha), and three harvesting intervals (6, 10, and 14 weeks) after planting (WAP). Collected grass samples were subjected to nutrient and in-vitro dry matter digestibility analysis. The cultivars and harvesting stages influenced (P < 0.05) the nutrient composition, dry matter intake (DMI), invitro dryy matter digestibility (IVDMD), relative feed value (RFV), and total digestible nutrients (TDN) of grasses. There was an interaction between the cultivars and harvesting intervals on acid detergent lignin (ADL), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sodium (Na), potassium (K), K/Ca + Mg, copper (Cu), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), and manganese (Mn). It can be concluded that Panicum maximum and Brachiaria brizantha cultivars can support optimum ruminant livestock production, and, the nutritive value of the Marandu cultivar supersedes minimum animal requirements.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (KZNDARD) for conducting the laboratory analysis. Conceptualization, writing – original draft preparation M.I.S and T.E.S; methodology, data curation, formal analysis, validation S.W; J.M, and K.M.; writing – review and editing, S.W and J.M.; supervision, K.M and T.E.S; funding acquisition, J.M and S.W. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to institutional requirements.