A study of forage yield and nutritive value of natural pastures at varying levels of maturity in North West Lowlands of Ethiopia
Keywords:
Metekel lowlands, ruminant, grazing land, biomass yield,, chemical composition, Benishangul-gumuz.Abstract
A study was conducted to describe forage yield and nutritive value of natural pasture at varying harvesting
time from Metekel area. An area of 2,414 m2 natural pasture was enclosed in three districts at the beginning
of the main rainy season in two consecutive years and harvesting was made at 10 days interval starting
from late July to November. The average yield of the natural pasture in the study area was 5.40 ton DM/ha.
The dry matter yield was significantly (P<0.05) increased in advancing flowering while crude protein and in
vitro organic matter digestibility was decreased, as expected. Unlike acid detergent fiber which increased
significantly (p<0.05) with maturity, the neutral detergent fiber and hemicellulose level of the pasture was
not significantly different (p>0.05) between harvestings. Despite poor balance of grass and legume
combinations which contributed for lower protein content and digestibility, the natural pasture of Metekel
zone has a high productivity in relation to total DM yield. It could be concluded that appropriate harvesting
time for quality hay making is at 40 to 80% of flowering and after 17±2 weeks of precipitation.
