Wet Season Forage Production of Leucaena leucocephala cv Tarramba Planted in a Multiple Rows Configuration on Sandy Vertisol Soil at Naibonat, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara-Indonesia

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to measure forage production of Leucaena leucocephala cv Tarramba planted in a multiple rows of live fencing model. Plants were arranged in 8 rows which planted 2 meters from the main live fence of 1ha land. The plants were cut at of 1m height and then again at +30cm from the ground level. Measurement of forage production was conducted to observe its ability in providing forage. Areas of 8x20 m on each of the 4 land sides (replications) were allocated for the measurements. Half of the observation plot (8x10m) was allocated for 2 months cutting interval and the other half (8x10m) were allocated for 4 months cutting interval. Measurements conducted were on fresh and dry matter of edible parts (leaf and stem skin), plant height, stem diameter and number of branches. The results showed that each plant produced in average of 8 to 11 branches at 2 months interval, while the 4 months interval produced 2 to 4 branches only. Plant heights and diameters were 150-280 cm and 0.6-2.5 cm on the 2 months cutting interval, and from 465-560 cm and 2.6-3.4 cm on the 4 months cutting interval. At 2 months interval, two harvests produced a total edible DM of 4 ton. While the 4 months interval obtained 1 harvest with 3.6 tons DM per harvest, able to support about 4-5 heads of Bali cattle for fattening during the 4 months. Thus, during the wet season the 2 months cutting interval is recommended.

Dry Season Biomass Production of Leucaena lecocephala cv Tarramba at 4 months regrowth and from Several Longer Regrowth Plants on Sandy Vertisol Soil at Naibonat, West Timor-Indonesia

“…The experiment was a continuation of the wet season forage production already published before [8], to obtain information on the potential yield of biomass production (leaf and stem) of Leucaena leucocephala cv Tarramba planted on a multiple-row configuration on Vertisol soil in one year (both in wet and dry seasons).…”

“…Plants were cut down to 1 m height after one year of transplanting and then again down to 30 cm from the ground in 2019. The planting configuration model in this experiment thus provides a total area of 3,132 m 2 with approximately 6,264 trees of Leucaena leucocephala cv Tarramba in the planted area [8]. This model was introduced to the farmers who still want to use their land to grow other crops, especially food crops such as corn.…”

“…Comparing all the cutting intervals, plant height significantly had a higher growth rate in 1-year plant stands (Table 2), while the growth from the 1-year plant to two years was not much. *) adding data from the previous measurements during the wet season (January to April) [8]. Numbers within the columns followed by different superscripts were significantly different (P<0.05)…”

“…By adding the skin and leaf production (Table 2) the model with 2,624 plants would be able to support 5 heads of bulls weighing 300 kg in the 2 cuttings in the 2 months in the wet season [8] and 2 heads of fattening bulls from March to April, 2 Heads of bulls in May to August and also 2 bulls in September to December. Thus, the model may produce at least 468 kg of live weight in one year, equal to 18,700,000 rupiahs obtained.…”

“…Calculation of Dry Matter (DM) biomass production per month (g DM/tree) from all cutting interval measurements, including data from the previous measurements[8] …”