RESPONSE OF Brachiaria ruziziensis AND Stylosanthes hamata MIXTURE TO NPK (15:15:15) FERTILIZER

ABSTRACT

Growing animals have a high protein requirement that can be met to a large degree by adequate legumes in the forage mix. Furthermore, palatability and digestibility may also be improved. The most compelling reasons to use mixtures containing both legumes and grasses are related to the benefits of plant diversity on sward productivity, yield persistence and livestock nutrition. Mixed pastures have higher biomass yield and nutritive value than pure stands. The objective of this study is to determine the growth and yield of Bracharia ruziziensis and Stylosanthes hamata mixture treated with N.P.K (15:15:15) fertilizer. The study was carried out in the Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin. The experiment was conducted using a paired plot arrangment with two rates (0 and 300 kg ha-1 ) of N.P.K fertilizer as treatments replicated four times. Number of tillers, sward height, and sward width, fresh herbage weight and dry herbage weight were measured as the growth and yield variables. Fertilizer significantly increased sward width when 300 kgha-1 was applied. This clearly shows that fertilizer application is necessary for high productivity of the grass (Brachiaria ruziziensis) and legume (Stylosanthes hamata) mixture.