Effects of Sowing Methods, Cutting Age on Growth Components, Forage Yields and Chemical Composition of White Mucuna (mucunapruriens) Forage

Abstract

The study was carried out at the Pasture Experimental Unit of the Livestock Teaching and Research Farm of the Department of Animal Science, University of Maiduguri to investigate the effect of sowing methods and cutting age on growth components, forage yields and chemical composition of White Mucuna (Mucuna pruriens). The treatment was laid down in a split-plot design with sowing method (dibbling, drilling and broadcasting) as the main plot and cutting age (4, 6, 8 and 10 weeks after sowing) as the sub-plot. There was significant (P<0.05) difference across sowing method on plant height, leaf number, leaf length, leaf width and number of branches of White mucuna. In this study, it was observed that at the early stage of growth there was no significance (P<0.05) difference on growth components at all the sowing method but from 6WAS to 10WAS there was significant (P<0.05) difference among sowing methods on plant height and number of branches where dibbling recorded highest plant height and number of branches at 10WAS over drilling and broadcasting. Taller (P<0.05) plant height, more number of leaf and more number of branches were recorded at 10WAS by dibbling while shorter (P<0.05) plant height, and less number of leaf were recorded by broadcasting method of sowing. There was significant (P<0.05) effect of cutting age on plant height, leaf length, number of leaf and number of branches with increasing number of days. The result obtained from chemical composition has dry matter (90.80%), organic matter (84.91%), ether extract (0.97%) and nitrogen free extract (52.43%) has the highest value at drilling method. the crude protein (17.72%), crude fibre (15.09%), neutral detergent fibre (16.77%) and acid detergent fibre (15.02%) showed the highest value at dibbling method, also, ash content (5.95%) and hemicellulose (1.75%) were obtained highest at broadcasting method. However, the cutting age significantly (p< 0.05) affected the chemical composition of white Mucuna forage at 6, 8, and 10 weeks after sowing. The result for dry matter (91.06%), OM (85.94%) and nitrogen free extract (55.17%) were recorded highest at 8 weeks. The AC (5.97%), EE (1.05%), CF (14.86%), NDF (15.86%), ADF (15.78%) and hemicellulose (1.84%) were higher at 10 weeks after harvest. Similarly, crude protein (14.86%) had higher value at 6 weeks after harvest, respectively. Similarly, the result of this experiment shows that both fresh forage yield ranged from (4000 to 14000 kg/ha) and dry forage yield ranged from (968 to 3505 kg/ha) of white Mucuna. It was concluded that dibbling method of sowing and cutting age of 10 weeks after sowing gave better growth components, forage yields and optimum nutrient composition for White Mucuna that can meet the nutrients requirements of ruminants' animals.