Quality Attributes in Sudanese Sorghums Improved for Forage Yield

Aims: To investigate quality attributes in forage sorghum at different growth phases and plant parts in relation to some agronomic traits

Study Design: The treatments were arranged in split-plots in randomized complete block design

Place and Duration: Field experiments were conducted in Sudan at two environments: Shambat 2005 and Sennar 2006

Methodology: Quality attributes were studied in two growth phases (boot and dough stages) split over nine genotype with plant part (leaf and stem) further spilt on growth phases. The traits studied included: green and dry matter yields, days to flowering, plant height, crude protein (CP) neutral detergent fiber (NDF) acid detergent fiber (ADF) ash and ether extract (EE).

Results: The growth phases differed significantly for ADF, NDF and CP. The plant parts differed significantly for ADF, CP and ASH. The interaction of growth stage with plant part was significant for all traits other than ADF. Correlation of forage yield with CP was significantly negative, with ADF was significantly positive and with NDF was also positive but insignificant. Correlation of CP with NDF was significantly negative, with ADF, EE and ASH was also negative but insignificant.

Conclusion: It was concluded that harvesting at boot stage will maximize the benefits gained from forage sorghum. Quality traits might be enhanced by developing cultivars with high leaf to stem ratio. Cultivars improved in protein content, intake potential and digestibility could be developed but concurrent improvement of these aspects with forage yield might be difficult to achieve. Forage yield, but not quality attributes of the selected lines has been improved over their parental population; this has been attributed to the adverse association between forage yield and CP. Screening for both quality and yield attributes in the earlier stages of the breeding program has been suggested