Study on the effect of harvesting frequency on cassava foliage for cassava hay production and its nutritive value
 

A Phengvilaysouk, and M Wanapat^*

LivestockResearch Center, National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute,
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, P O Box 811,Vientiane, Lao PDR
ammalyp@yahoo.com
* Tropical Feed Resources Research and Development Center (TROFREC),
Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture,
Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand.

Abstract

This experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of harvesting frequency on yield and nutritive value of cassava foliage. It was arranged in a Randomized complete block design (RCBD). Two treatments were two different ages of cassava foliage of initial harvesting, at 2 and 4 months; (IC₂) and (IC₄). The subsequent harvestings for both were at every 2 months until the cassava foliage was 8 months old. Cassava (Rayong 5, RY₅) was cultivated as a monoculture for all plots; each plot was 5x10 m (50 m²), and 150 kg/ha of commercial fertilizer (46-0-0, N-P-K) was applied to cassava crop at the start.
 

The results showed that cassava foliage yield was significantly different (P<0.05) among harvesting times within the treatments. For the initial harvesting at 2 months of age (IC₂), DM yield was highest in the second harvest (H₂) and was lowest in the fourth harvest (H₄) (3.2 and 1.2 tonnes/ha, respectively). For the treatment of initial harvesting at 4 months of age (IC₄), DM yield was greatest in the first harvest (H₁) (3.3 tonnes/ha) and was lowest in the third harvest (H₃) (1.2 tonnes/ha). The foliage yield at each harvesting time significantly decreased (p<0.05) with the crop age. However, total DM yield was not significantly different among treatments. Total DM yields of IC₂ and I