350 selected plants of Rhodes grass cv. Mbarara (early-heading), Masaba (medium-heading) and Pokot (late-heading) were examined for both seed and herbage yield characters, the latter at the stage of initial heading. Within each of these cv. a large variation occurred between individual spaced plants in seed and herbage yield, leaf:stem ratio and OM digestibility in vitro (D-vitro). However, this variation was secondary, as it was largely accounted for by a wide variation in heading date, ranging over more than or equal to 8 wk within a cv. There was a progressive decline in yield characters with every wk of delayed heading. Early-heading plants produced yields of pure germinating seed more than double those of late plants. At the initial-heading stage these plants also had a higher herbage yield, leaf:stem ratio and D-vitro, but a lower content of stem and dead leaf. D-vitro was on average 7.6 units higher in early plants than in plants heading 8 wk later, but the extremes varied as much as 17 units between some early and late. D-vitro of leaf, stem and whole-sward samples fell by 0.07, 0.12 and 0.14 units, resp., with every day of delayed heading. Leaf digestibility and DM content were higher than those of stems. At the initial-heading stage whole-sward digestibility and leaf:stem ratio were higher in Mbarara than in Masaba and Pokot, because Mbarara plants were on the whole earlier in heading. Of those plants, however, which had a common heading date in each of the 3 cv. i.e. which were sampled at the initial-heading stage and on the same day, digestibility and leaf:stem ratios of Masaba plants were above those of Mbarara and, in particular, those of Pokot. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission)
Effect of Nitrogen Fertilizer and Inter Row Spacing on Herbage Yield and Some Yield Components (Number of Leaves and Number of Tillers per Plant) of Rhodes Grass (Chloris gayana Tan) in the Dry Sub Humid Zone of Sokoto Nigeria
