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.

Beberapa atribut agronomi rumput Panicum sarmentosum Roxb. sebagai respon perlakuan penyiramandievaluasi dalam suatu percobaan di rumah kaca Fakultas Pertanian, Universitas Tadulako, di Palu-SulawesiTengah. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mempelajari tingkat pertumbuhan kembali (regrowth) tanamanrumput Panicum sarmentosum Roxb. yang didefoliasi secara berulang dengan umur pemanenan 4 minggupada perlakuan penyiraman berbeda. Rancangan acak lengkap (RAL) digunakan dalam penelitian pot (pottrial) satu faktor ini. Perlakuan penyiraman yang diterapkan adalah penyiraman setiap hari sekali (S1H),penyiraman setiap dua hari sekali (S2H), dan penyiraman pada saat tanaman menjelang layu (S3H). Setiapperlakuan diulang sebanyak 6 kali sehingga diperoleh 18 pot unit percobaan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkanbahwa tanaman rumput Panicum sarmentosum Roxb. memiliki indikasi produktif yang baik sebagai spesies baru yang tahan terhadap kekeringan sehingga berpotensi untuk dapat dimanfaatkan dan dikembangkan pada lahan kering Lembah Palu. Kata kunci: hijauan, rumput, sarmentosum, penyiraman, pertumbuhan

Abstract:A low liveweight gain of of Kacang goats when given grass as single feed indicated that additional feed is required to increase their gowth performance. This study was done to examine the effect of addition of Gliricidia (Gliricidia sepium) leaf or rice bran on feed intake, feed digestibility and liveweight gain of Kacang goat given Mulato (Brachiaria mulato) grass. Twenty four male Kacang goat, approximately 13.4 ± 0.6 kg in initial weight and 10 months of age, were housed in individual metabolic pen and allocated to one of three dietary treatments. The experimental design was a completely randomized block design, with three treatments and eight replicates (goats). The treatments were Mulato grass ad libitum (M), Mulato + Gliricidia (1% weight/d on dry matter basis) (MG), and Mulato + rice bran (1% weight/d on dry matter basis) (MR). The experiment was run for eight weeks period (two weeks for adaptation and and six weeks for measurement period, respectively). Parameters measured were liveweight gain (LWG), dry matter intake (DMI) and dry matter digestibility (DMD). The result showed that dietary treatment significantly (P < 0.05) affected the LWG, DMI and DMD of Kacang goat. Goat given Mulato grass had the lowest LWG, DMI and DMD with value 58 g/d, 2.77% weight/d and 57.61%, respectively. Goat received Mulato + Gliricidia and Mulato + rice bran had a significant higher LWG (73 g/d and 76 g/d, respectively), DMI (3.25% weight/d and 3.65% weight/d, respectively) and DMD (62.28% and 63.19%, respectively). However, no significant difference (P > 0.05) between goat received Mulato + Gliricidia and Mulato + rice bran. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that protein or energy contents of the diet influenced growth, feed intake and digestibility of Kacang goat.

Storage of rice bran (RB) at anaerobic conditions is the potential way to reduce phytic acid (PA) and stabilize the nutrient contents. This study was aimed to examine the effect of fermentation without or with lactic acid bacteria (LAB)) and storage time on the PA, in vitro dry matter digestibility, and nutrient content of RB. A factorial completely randomized design was used in this study. The first factor was the fermentation method, RB with no fermentation (M0), with fermentation without LAB (M1), with fermentation plus LAB (M2). The second factor was storage time, namely 0 (S1), 5 (S2), 10 (S3), and 15 (S4) weeks. Each unit was repeated 4 times. Parameters measured include phytic acid (PA), in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD), crude protein (CP), and crude fiber (CF) contents. A two-way analysis of variance was employed to determine the significant effect of the treatment. For PA the interaction between method and storage time and the main effects were all significant (P < 0.01). For IVDMD, only the fermentation method affected significantly (P < 0.05), with M0 as the lowest and M2 as the highest at all storage time. However, the CP content of RB was not affected significantly (P > 0.05) by treatment. In addition, the CF content of rice bran was not significantly (P > 0.05) affected by an interaction between method and storage time but significantly reduced (P < 0.01) by the method of fermentation. It was concluded that fermentation with the addition of LAB anaerobically decreased anti-nutrient content, increased the feeding and nutritive value of RB.