Effects of Sudan Grass Cultivars and Cutting Frequency on Forage Yield and Quality Traits at the Central Gondar Zone, Ethiopia

Understanding the relationship between biomass production and forage quality will help to use the selected cultivar and to optimize the cutting interval between harvests in forages to get the required biomass with the desired quality. Among potential forage grasses that required this knowledge, there were Sudan grass cultivars. The aim of the present work was to investigate the forage yield and quality traits of five Sudan grass cultivars with three harvest days intervals at G/Zuria and W/Dembia districts in 2019 and 2020. Five Sudan grass cultivars (DRLME, Mezrut, Wichello, Michello and Aden) and three harvest schedules (40, 50 and 60 days interval) were combined and used for the study. A factorial experiment was laid down in a completely Randomized Block Design (RCBD) with four replications. To assess their potential plant height (cm), number of tillers per plant, forage fresh yield, Dry Matter (DM) yield, Leaf to Stem Ratio (LSR), Crude Protein (CP) yield and quality traits including total ash, Crude Protein (CP), Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF), Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF) and Acid Detergent Lignin (ADL) were recorded. Data were analyzed of variance, and when the difference was significant, the treatment means were compared using the LSD test at 5%. The result revealed that there were significant differences between cultivars for all the traits except LRS, NDF, ADF and ADL (P < 0.05). The Drlme and Aden cultivars with average values of 82.44 and 80.03 cm respectively had higher plant height than the other (P < 0.05). For tiller number, Wichello and Mezrut with values of 17.08 and 15.47, respectively had higher density. The higher annual fresh biomass yield with average values of 28.65 and 26.77 tha−1 were obtained in Mezrut and Drlme, respectively. Drlme and Michello with values of 6.61 and 6.95 tha−1 produced maximum annual forage DM yield. For CP% and CP yield, the Cultivars Mezrut, Michello and Wichello were found efficient in total CP yield. There were significant differences between harvest days interval for all the traits except tiller number (P < 0.05). The higher values of plant height, forage fresh and dry yield and CP yield were observed in 60 days cutting interval. It was concluded that Mezrut, Wichello and Michello at 60 days interval cutting had higher CP yields and were recommended for further Sudan grass production.