Effects of Nitrogen and Sulphur Fertilization on the Production and Nutritive Values of Two Elephant Grass Cultivars at Two Different Harvesting Times

Abstract

A laboratory experiment was carried out to ascertain the effects of adding nitrogen (N) and sulphur (S) fertilizers on the nutritive values of two elephant grass cultivars, that is Pennisetum purpureum cv. Taiwan (EGT) and Mott (EGM) at 45 and 60 days harvesting times. Three levels of N fertilizer equivalent to,0, 500, and 1000 kg/Ha/year and two combination of N + S fertilizers equivalent to 500 kg N+571 kg S;1000 kg N+1143 kg S/Ha/year, respectively were allotted into a nested complete randomized design with three replicates each. Approximately 10 kg of soil was placed in each poly bag + one clump of grass and the sward was allowed to grow for 90 days, trimmed and harvested at their respective times. The results showed that the use of fertilizers particularly nitrogen linearly increased the nutrition content of grass and the dose of 1000 kg N+1143 kg S/Ha/year resulted in the highest CP content regardless of the harvesting times. EGM may offer more digestible nutrients than EGT due to superiority in the leaf: stem ratio than EGM. In conclusion EGM can be recommended to replace EGT for ruminant forage.