EVALUATION OF TWO MAIZE ACCESSIONS FOR FORAGE YIELD, NUTRIENT COMPOSITION AND DIGESTIBILITY

EVALUATION OF TWO MAIZE ACCESSIONS FOR FORAGE YIELD, NUTRIENT COMPOSITION AND DIGESTIBILITY

Abstract:

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the forage yield, nutrient composition and digestibility of two maize accessions – West Atlantic Seed Alliance 1 (WASA1) and a cultivar from Shika tagged (SHIMAZ). The maize seeds were planted in plots of 5 X 5m2 size with four replicates for each accession. Six Red Sokoto goats (3 for each accession) were used for digestibility study in a completely randomized design. The results showed that, there was no difference (P>0.05) between the accessions for plant height and number of leaves at 4, 6, 8, and 10 weeks after sowing (WAS), but leaf area index (LAI) was higher (P<0.05) in SHIMAZ than WASA1, (1.6 vs. 1.2) and (5.2 vs. 4.8) at 6 and 10WAS respectively. The number of leaves per plant, green leaves, leaf area and forage yields harvested at 91, 105 and 112 days after sowing (DAS) were not significant (P>0.05), while leaf area and LAI were higher (P<0.05) in WASA1 than in SHIMAZ. The percentage dry matter (DM) content and cobs ratio were significantly (P<0.05) lower in WASA1, although leaf, stem and husks ratios were higher (P<0.01) at various stages of harvest. The crude protein (CP) and nitrogen free-extract (NFE) were higher (P<0.01) in WASA1 accession while crude fibre (CF) was higher (P<0.01) in SHIMAZ at various stages of harvest. Leaf ratio was higher (P<0.01) in SHIMAZ than WASA1 (37.8 vs. 29.2%) respectively, while stem ratio was higher (P<0.05) in WASA1 than SHIMAZ (33.4 vs. 24.9%) respectively at dough stage. There was no difference (P>0.05) in forage yield, husks and tassels ratios, leaf area, neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and proximate components between the two accessions at dough stage. The ash (10.8%) content in WASA1 silage was higher (P<0.01) than that of 6.8% in SHIMAZ, CP was also higher (P<0.01) in WASA1 than SHIMAZ (8.6 vs. 7.3%) respectively. The ash, EE and CP contents were significantly (P<001) higher in silage than fresh forage of WASA1 and there was no difference (P>0.05) in EE, CF and CP for both fresh forage and silage of SHIMAZ accession. There was also no difference (P>0.05) in dry matter intake (DMI) and crude protein intake (CPI). Apparent nutrient digestibility were not significant (P>0.05) except for crude protein digestibility (CPD) which was higher (P<0.05) in WASA1 than SHIMAZ (73.4 vs. 61.7%) and (82.7 vs. 76.9%) for forage and silage respectively. It is concluded that the two maize accessions can be grown in the Northern Guinea Savanna of Nigeria for animal feeding where the experiment was carried out, but SHIMAZ accession may be preferred due to it’s high biomass

EVALUATION OF TWO MAIZE ACCESSIONS FOR FORAGE YIELD, NUTRIENT COMPOSITION AND DIGESTIBILITY

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