Productive capacity of sudan grass grown as secondary crop on irrigation

Rumen Bazitov, Milena Mihaylova, Stanimir Enchev

Abstract: A field experiment has been conducted with sudan grass grown as secondary crop on irrigation at the experimental base of Agricultural Institute - Stara Zagora for the period 2014-2016. The following variants were tested: Var. 1 - no irrigation (control); Var. 2 - optimal irrigation, 70-75% of FC (100% irrigation rate); Var. 3 - irrigation as Var. 2 but with removal of the first watering; Var. 4 - irrigation as Var. 2 but with removal of the second watering; Var. 5 - irrigation as Var. 2, but with removal of the third watering. On the basis of a chemical analysis of sudan grass forage for the crude protein content FUM, FUG and PDI were defined. It was found that the highest yield of crude protein from sudan grass grown as a secondary crop was obtained from the optimally
irrigated variant, both in non-fertilized and fertilized variants, respectively 53.4 kg/da and 68.2 kg/da. The optimal water supply of the sudan grass provides the highest energy efficiency of the feed expressed in FUM – 957.6/da and 11043/da, FUG – 946/da and 1031/da and PDI – 81.58 kg/da and 92.41 kg/da for non-fertilized and fertilized variants, respectively.

Keywords: chemical composition; crude fiber; energy efficiency; PDI; sudan grass

Date published: 2018-03-12