PALATABILITY INDEX OF THREE TROPICAL GRASSES AS INFLUENCED MANURE TYPE AND HARVEST AGE

Abstract

A cafeteria trial was carried out on three tropical grasses fertilized with four animal manures and harvested at four different ages with the use of fifteen yearling calves. The experiment was a 5x3x4 factorial in a split-split-plot design with three replicates. The four animal manures (cattle, swine, poultry and sheep and goat) and no manure (control) were used as the main plots; three grass species [Megathyrus maximus(Local), M. maximus(Ntchisi) and Cenchrus purpureus] were the sub-plots and four age at harvest [4, 8, 12 and 16 weeks after planting (WAP)].The results of the grasses consumed as affected by the manure type during the cafeteria studies showed that swine manured grasses intake (0.40  kg) was significantly higher (P<0.05) than other manure sources. Also, the grasses harvested at 8 weeks after planting (WAP) were the most (0.38 kg) consumed while the grasses harvested at 4 WAP were the least consumed. The effect of species was significant (P<0.05) on the consumption of the grasses as the maximus (Local) recorded the highest (0.34 kg) while the C. purpureus recorded the least consumption value. The age at harvest effect on the coefficient of preference of the grasses showed that the grasses harvested at 8 WAP were significantly higher than those harvested at other ages. In conclusion, the coefficient of preference and relative palatability index in this study was in favour of grasses fertilized with swine manure, M. maximus (Local) and grasses harvested at 8 weeks after planting.