Yield, chemical composition and chlorophyll relative content of Tanzania and Mombaça grasses irrigated and fertilized with nitrogen after corn intercropping

Abstract

It was evaluated the effect of the absence and of application of three nitrogen doses (50, 100 and 200 kg ha-1of N) and four harvest times in the winter/spring season (from July to October) on dry mass yield (DMY), on the relative chlorophyll contents (ICF _ leaf chlorophyll index) and on the contents of total digestible nutrients (TDN), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and lignin, and their respective correlations on Tanzania and Mombaça grasses after intercrop with corn in distroferric red latosol (Oxisol) soil as well. It was used a random block design, in split-plot with four replicates. The greatest DMY occured with the increase of photoperiod (from August), neverthless responses to nitrogen fertilization over cuts difered among the grasses. In an irrigated crop-livestock integration system under cerrado conditions, it is technically feasible the establishment of Tanzania and Mombaça grass intercroped with corn at sowing or if cover nitrogen fertilization is performed because even in the abscence of nitrogen fertilization, great satisfactory quantity of forage was produced, with average DMY of 2,000 kg ha-1 per cut during the highest shortage of roughage for animals (winter/spring). Nitrogen fertilization after corn harvest increases DMY and improves bromatologic composition of the grasses, as contents of chlorophyll and CP in winter/spring is increased, besides the increase of contents of TDN and a reduction on the contents of NDF and ADF until September. Leaf chlorophyll index can be used to estimate the DMY and CP content and as a marker of the need of nitrogen fertilization of Tanzania and Mombaça grasses submitted to cutting.