Forage Production and Nutritive Value of Four Promising Sorghum X Sudangrass Hybrid in Korea

Forage Production and Nutritive Value of Four Promising Sorghum X Sudangrass Hybrid in Korea

Sorghum x sudangrass hybrid (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is one of the most important annual grass utilized for supplemental summer forage. There were 14 National Livestock Cooperative Federation (NLCF)’s recommended forage sorghum´sudangrass hybrids in Korea. Among them several hybrids were produced widely, however, they have not been evaluated under same environmental conditions. Therefore, a field experiment was carried out to compare the plant height, forage yield and nutritive value of the NLCF’s recommended cultivars at NLRI, Suwon, Korea in 1995. The four promising cultivars of sorghum´sudangrass hybrid used in this study were P 988, TE-Haygrazer, NC+ 855 (heading type), and Jumbo (headless type). The plant height ranged between 220cm (P 988) and 232cm (NC+ 855). NC+ 855 was classified as early-maturing cultivar, and then TE-Haygrazer, P 988. Jumbo was going on vegetative stage in this experiment. The dry matter (DM) yields of sorghum´sudangrass hybrids ranged between 11.26 and 13.40 MT/ha. No significant differences were observed, but the DM yield of NC+ 855 was slightly higher than those of P 988 (11.31MT), TE-Haygrazer (11.77MT), and Jumbo (11.26MT). The nutritive value was very similar among the cultivars. There were no significant differences in contents of crude protein, crude fiber, and crude protein yield. In conclusion, there were no differences of forage yield and nutritive value among four promising recommended sorghum´sudangrass hybrids, although maturity was different among heading-type hybrids.