EFFECT OF CUTTING INTERVALS ON YIELD AND QUALITY FODDER PRODUCTION IN HYBRID NAPIER
P. K. ISHRATH, USHA C. THOMAS AND GANESH DHANYA
Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala), India
AICRP on Forage Crops and Utilization, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala), India
KLD Board, Dhoni, Palakkad (Kerala), India
*(e-mail : ishrathpk@gmail.com)
(Received : 23 July 2018; Accepted : 20 September 2018)
SUMMARY
The investigation entitled “Effect of cutting intervals on yield and quality fodder production” was conducted at Kerala Livestock Development Board farm, Dhoni, Palakkad during 2015 to 2016. The main objective was to assess the effect of cutting intervals on yield and quality of fodder using hybrid napier variety Suguna. The experiment was laid out in RBD with three treatments and seven replications. The treatments comprised of three cutting intervals – 45 days, 60 days and 75 days. The results showed that, the highest fodder yield of 57.85 t/ha/cut was obtained in T3 (75 days), but the fodder quality was better in T1 (45 days) which registered high crude protein content (10.56 %) and low crude fibre content (26.81 %).
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