International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nigeria

Abstract

In order to identify options suitable for providing livestock feed in the wetter part of the moist savanna, the DM yield, botanical composition, crude protein, in sacco digestibility and neutral detergent fibre of combinations of 4 herbaceous legumes and 2 grasses were evaluated between June 1994 and December 1995 at Ibadan, south-western Nigeria. The legumes, Stylosanthes guianensis, Aeschynomene histrix, Centrosema pubescens and Chamaecrista rotundifolia, were each planted in combination with Brachiaria ruziziensis and Cynodon nlemfuensis. Beginning from one year after planting, the mixtures were mob-grazed 4 times at 8-weekly intervals following DM yield estimation.
Mixtures with B. ruziziensis recorded significantly higher dry matter yields at the early stages of evaluation than those with Cy. nlemfuensis. Dry matter yield and the legume content of mixtures generally declined with time. A. histrix, the most vigorous legume in the early stages, declined rapidly during the course of the experiment and disappeared from the B. ruziziensis mixture by the end of the year. In contrast, the proportion of Ce. pubescens with the grasses increased over the experimental period so that, by the end of the year, it had the highest yield of all legumes. Variations in quality were less marked than those of biomass yield, but legumes were superior in quality to grasses. No single mixture of grass and legume proved clearly superior to other combinations.

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