New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research abstracts
Cutting management of willows (Salix spp.) and leguminous shrubs for
forage during summer
G. B. DOUGLAS1
B. T. BULLOCH2,3
A. G. FOOTE1
1AgResearch Grasslands
Private Bag 11008
Palmerston North, New Zealand
2HortResearch
Private Bag 11030
Palmerston North, New Zealand
3Present address: P. O. Box 7097, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
Abstract An experiment was conducted to determine the
potential value of shrubs for providing fodder for ruminants during periods of
feed insufficiency. The work was undertaken at a moist and a dry site in the
lower North Island of New Zealand in 1992/93 with four shrub species:
Chamaecytisus palmensis (tagasaste); Dorycnium rectum (erect
dorycnium); Salix kinuyanagi (kinuyanagi willow); and Salix
matsudana x alba (hybrid willow). Five cutting regimes were adopted
which varied in cutting frequency and height, with the latter being either a
low (L) or high (H) cutting height. There was a single low cut (L) in April at
the end of the growing season, 2 cuts (LL and HL treatments) in February and
April, and 3 cuts (LLL and HHL treatments) in December, February, and April.
Three cuts during the season were investigated only at the moist site. Whole
plant yields over the 1992/93 growing season were highest from a single cut in
April. However, 2- and 3-cut treatments sometimes gave yields as high as those
from a single cut (P < 0.05), particularly when the first cut was
high. C. palmensis (7.7-16.7 t dry matter (DM)/ha) and D. rectum
(0.1-4.8 t DM/ha) were the highest- and lowest-yielding species, respectively,
at each site, with Salix spp. (1.0-9.9 t DM/ha) having intermediate
yields. C. palmensis had the highest quality forage with in vitro
organic matter digestibility (OMD) of 77-85% and total nitrogen (N) content of
26-40 g N/kg DM, and it was unique among the species in having consistent high
quality throughout the season at both sites. The Salix spp. and D.
rectum had an average total N content of 25 g N/kg DM. S. kinuyanagi
(46%) and D. rectum (53%) had lower OMD than S. matsudana
x alba (71%), perhaps because of the formers' relatively high lignin
contents (67-95 g/kg DM). It was concluded that C. palmensis
particularly, and Salix matsudana x alba, could be
valuable for supplying supplementary forage during the summer in dry areas.
Keywords forage shrubs; browse; Chamaecytisus
palmensis; Salix species; Dorycnium rectum
New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research, 1996, Vol. 39: 175-184
0028-8233/96/3902-0175 $2.50/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand
1996
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (813K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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