EFFECT OF ORGANIC AND INORGANIC MANURE ON CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND IN SACCO DEGRADABILITY OF (PENNISETUM PEDICELLATUM TRIN ) HARVESTED AT 4, 6 AND 8 WEEKS

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of organic and inorganic manure ( control, cow dung, pig waste, poultry litter and npk15:15:15) on the chemical composition and insacco degradability of Pennisetum Pedicelatum trin harvested at 4, 6 and 8 weeks after regrowth ( after cutback). the experiment was conducted at the teaching and research farm university of Ibadan between the month of March and September. Seedlings of p.pedicellatum were planted on a total land area of  382.5m2 which was ploughed and subdivided into 30 sub plots of 4m x 4m with 1m spacing within and between plots respectively. the experiment was laid out in a 5x3 factorial arrangement in a completely randomized design (CRD) of five manure treatments i.e. cow dung, pig waste, poultry litter, npk 15:15:15 and control with three harvesting stage of 4,6 and 8 weeks respectively. the
manure type had significant effect p (<0.05) on the Ash, CF, ADF, NDF and shows no significant difference (p>0.05) on the EE, DM and CP while the harvesting stage had significant differences (p<0.05) on both the chemical composition and rate of disappearance from the nylon bag. it was recommended from this study that farmers should adopt the use of organic manure of animal origin such as poultry litter, pig waste and cow dung as a viable alternative for ease of establishment of this grass species as livestock feeds and harvesting at early stage of growth to enhances its nutritive value.