Abstract

CABALLERO-GOMEZ, Arnaldo; MARTINEZ-ZUBIAUR, Ramón O; HERNANDEZ-CHAVEZ, Marta B  and  NAVARRO-BOULANDIER, Marlen. Characterization of the yield and quality of five accessions of Cenchrus purpureus (Schumach.) Morrone. Pastos y Forrajes [online]. 2016, vol.39, n.2, pp.94-101. ISSN 0864-0394.

The study was conducted at the horse rearing farm Los Limones, located in Jagüey Grande (Matanzas), in order to evaluate the yield of five accessions of Cenchrus purpureus (Schumach.) Morrone under production conditions. The treatments were the accessions king grass, OM-22, CT-169, Taiwán morado and CT-115. The plant height, total DM yield, leaf yield, stem yield, CP content, CF content and digestibility were measured. To analyze integrally the results a factorial analysis was made through principal components, using the Varimax method; for such purpose the accessions that had a similar performance from the impact indexes were analyzed and the cluster history and the association degree among the compared elements were taken into consideration. CT-169 and king grass were significantly higher (p< 0,001) in height than the other accessions. King grass showed significant difference in the total DM yield and in the stem yield with regards to the others, in the year as well as in the dry season. OM-22 and Taiwán morado achieved the highest CP percentage in the leaves and stems. From the productive point of view the best accessions were OM-22 and Taiwán morado, which showed a higher leaf proportion with regards to the total DM yield and stood out for their CP content and their acceptable digestibility. The performance in yield and quality of the accessions contributed to show the productive potentials of C. purpureus on the soils of the locality.

Keywords : Digestibility; height; yield.

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