TITLE:
Productivity and nutritive quality of dallisgrass (Paspalum dilatatum) as influenced by cutting height and rate of fertilization with poultry litter or commercial fertilizer
AUTHORS:
Elias J. Bungenstab, Adolfo C. Pereira Jr., John C. Lin, James L. Holliman, Russell B. Muntifering
KEYWORDS:
Dallisgrass; Productivity; Nutritive Quality; Poultry Litter
JOURNAL NAME:
Agricultural Sciences,
Vol.4 No.9,
August
27,
2013
ABSTRACT: Dallisgrass (Paspalum dilatatum) is well adapted to the Black Belt region of the
southeastern US, and information on its productivity and nutritive quality as
influenced by fertility is needed. In each yr of a 2-yr study, an existing
dallisgrass pasture that had been subdivided into 48 plots of 9.3 m2 each was fertilized with the equivalent of 34 (34N), 67 (67N), 101 (101N) or
134 (134N) kg N/ha from poultry litter (PL) or commercial fertilizer (CF; NH4NO3).
In both years, primary-growth and vegetative regrowth forage was harvested in
mid-August and late September, respectively, and forage from each harvest was
clipped to either a 5- or 10-cm stubble height. Forage cut to a 5-cm height
yielded 71% more (P P = 0.002) for CF than PL forage and increased for both fertilizer
sources with increasing rates of N application. Forage concentrations of
cell-wall constituents were not different between CF and PL treatments. Forage
amended with CF had a higher concentration of Ca, Mg and Mn than PL-amended
forage; however, forage amended with PL had a higher concentration of P and K
than CF-amended forage. There was no effect of fertilizer source on forage
concentration of Al, Cu or Zn. Results indicate that PL and CF were comparable for
supporting productivity and nutritive quality of dallisgrass on Black Belt
soils.