No abstract

Two trials were carried out to evaluate the response new introduced grass Paspalum atratum with different management in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. The first trial was done to examine the effects of levels of urea fertilization on growth, biomass production and nutritive value of P. atratum. A 4 × 8 completely randomized block design was employed in this study. The treatment imposed was four levels of urea fertilization namely 0, 100, 200 and 300 kg/ha. All treatments were repeated eight times. The runners of tillers of P. atratum were planted at separation of 75 cm × 75 cm in each 3 m × 3 m plot. Parameters such as plant hight, tiller number, leaf width and nutritive value of P. atratum were measured at Days 28 and 56 after first cut. The second trial was conducted to study the effect of P. atratum, legume herbs mixture on growth and yield of P. atratum. A completely randomized block was designed with four treatments, eight replicates, with 32 total plots. Each plot comprised of 3 m × 3 m. The treatments tested in this study include P. atratum planted as monoculture (P), P mixed with Dolichos lablab (PDL), P mixed with Centrosema pascuorum (PCP) and P mixed with Clitoria ternatea (PCT). Parameters recorded include plant height, tillage number, leaf width and biomass dry matter (DM) production of P. atratum. The results of trial one demonstrated that levels of urea fertilisation significantly (p < 0.05) increased plant height, tillage number, DM production and crude protein (CP) content, and reduced significantly neutral detergent fibre (NDF) of P. atratum. No significant effect (p > 0.05) was detected of the level of urea fertilastion on leaf width, DM, organic matter (OM) and ether extract (EE) of P. atratum. Experiment two, exhibited that mix planting between P. atratum with legume herbs did not affect significantly (p > 0.05) plant height, tillage number, leaf width and biomass DM production of P. atratum.

This experiment was conducted to examine the effect of various legume herbs supplementation on feed intake, digestibility and liveweight gain of fat-tailed lambs given Mulato (Brachiaria mulato) grass. Twenty four male fat-tailed lambs (8 months of age and 12.73± 0.56 kg (SE) of initial liveweight) were randomly allotted to four treatment groups based on unfasted liveweight.  Animals were housed in individual metabolism crates. The experiment was designed in a completely randomized block design, with four treatments and six replicates. The dietary treatment tested included Mulato grass ad libitum (M), M + Centrosema pascuorum  (MCP), M + Dolichos lab lab (MDL) and M+ Clitoria ternatea (MCT). All supplement was offered at 1.5% body weight (W) per day.  The experiment lasted for 10 weeks, with 2 and 8 weeks for adaptation and measurement period, respectively. The main parameter measured included feed intake, feed digestibility, and average daily liveweight gain (ADG).  Results showed that total DM intakes (DMI) were not affected (P>0.05) by legume herbs supplementation. Total DMI was 2.75, 2.79, 2.84 and 2.87 %W/d for lamb treated with M MCP, MDL and MCT respectively. In contrast, supplementation with various legume herbs significantly increased (P <0.05) DM digestibility (DMD) and ADG of lamb received Mulato grass, with no significant difference (P>0.05) between legume herbs.  Feed DMD was 58.17, 67.48, 64.91; 65.03% and ADG were 35.67; 58.39; 54.31 and 54.41 g/day, for lamb treated with M, MCP, MDL and MCT respectively. It was concluded that supplementation of legume herbs to fat-tailed lamb fed Mulato grass significantly increased DMD and ADG, but no significant differences across the legume herbs as feed supplements were observed.