Productivity and nutritional value of sunfl ower and Sudan grass

Abstract

The work presents the results of research into productivity of traditional and uncommon silage crops – sunfl ower and Sudan grass – sown as a single crop and intercropped with broad beans, spring rape and oil radish. The study was carried out on meadow chernozem mealy-carbonate soil in the forest-steppe zone of Trans-Baikal Territory. The objects of the research were the following recognized varieties: Yenisei sunfl ower, Sudan grass Novosibirsk 84, broad beans Sibirskiye, spring rape Spat, oil radish Tambovchanka. Agricultural technology used for fodder crop cultivation was common for this area. Sunfl ower was sown both as a single crop and intercropped with broad beans in the third ten-day period of May in wide alternating rows. Sudan grass was sown both as a single crop and intercropped with spring rape and oil radish in the second ten-day period of May in rows. The experimental work was carried out alongside laboratory observations and analyses in accordance with the generally accepted guidelines for fi eld experiments on fodder crops. The possibility of increasing fodder productivity and nutritional value of silage agrocenoses was established by means of intercropping sunfl ower and Sudan grass with broad beans and cabbage crops (spring rape and oil radish) and sowing them in herbage in alternating rows. The experiment noted the maximum collection of feed units of 2.96-5.22 t/ha, digestible protein of 414.2-621.1 kg/ha and gross energy of 35.467.1 GJ/ha with the availability of digestible protein in the amount of 118.9-139.9 g per one feed unit and 10.0-10.7 MJ of metabolic energy per 1 kg of dry matter.