Abstract 513

Soto,-L; Laredo-C,-MA; Alarcon-M,-E

Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, Tibaitata, Bogata, Colombia.

Revista-del-Instituto-ColombianoAgropecuario. 1980, 15: 2, 79-90; 24 ref.

In June 1979, Kikuyu grass was cut after (a) 39, (b) 50 and (c) 78 days and given 0, 50 or 100 kg N/ha as urea. Forage yields were 1.27, 1.75 and 3.25 t DM/ha for (a), (b) and (c), resp., and N increased yield from 1.43 t DM/ha to 1.99 and 2.86 t for the 2 increments, resp. Voluntary intake by penned sheep increased with herbage maturity; highest voluntary intake was 66.86 and 70.64 g/kg liveweight0.75/day at (b) and (c), resp. Intake was increased by approx. 6 units with added N. DM intake was increased more by growth stage because of the changes in DM digestibility and fibre, hemicellulose and cellulose contents. There was a negative correlation between voluntary intake and DM digestibility with acid detergent fibre, lignin and Si content and a positive correlation with leaf:stem ratio.