EVALUATION OF HERBACEOUS RANGE PLANTS IN EARLY AND LATE RAINY SEASON IN PROTECTED AND OPEN SITES AT BUTANA AREA (ELHWATA) – SUDAN

Abstract

A study was conducted in 2009 to estimate the dry weight yield and nutritive value of grasses and forbs at Butana area. Dry weight of forbs and grasses were higher in late season than in early season. Dry weight of forbs in the protected site was higher than in open site, while the opposite occurred for grasses. Forbs percentages in both protected and open site were higher than that of grasses. Crude protein (CP) in forbs decreased due to maturity from 22.4% to 20.2% in early rainy season and from 22.6% to 17.1% in late rainy season in open and protected site respectively. However, CP content of grasses for the same periods and site were 14.8% and 13.3 %, and 17.4% and 14.4%. CP content of pasture decreased and ash content increased (P<0.001) with increasing maturity of plants. NDF in forbs ranged from 53% to 43.1% and from 44.1% to 48%, ADF varied from 49% to 42.2% and from 46.1% to 45.3% and ADL ranged from 19.2 % to 15.7% and from 12.8 to 17.5% in early and late period of season in open and protected sites, respectively. Increases in NDF, ADF and ADL in early season in open site may be due to selective grazing of animals while in late season in protected site particularly ADL 17.5% might be due to maturity lignifications. NDF and ADF in grasses were higher than in forbs while ADL was lower. The study confirmed that animals prefer forbs to grasses as indicated by the decrease of forbs in open site compared with that of protected site.