Abstract
The in vitro dry matter digestibility (I.V.D.) of the stem and total leaf fractions of four orchardgrass clones was similar at the preheading stage. Even at 100% head emergence, differences in I.V.D. between stems and living leaves were not great with the early-maturing clones. However, wide differences existed between the values for stems and living leaves in mature plants. Heads were only slightly higher than stems in digestibility.Leaf digestibility was lower for those leaves dead or even partially dead. Nevertheless, in mature plants, dead leaves were higher in I.V.D. than heads or stems. Large differences occurred among clones in stem digestibility. However, the variability among clones in leaf digestibility was small.
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