Comparitive Experiments Of Three Germanous Forage Grasses

The agronomic characters, drought resistance, seasonal dynamic of nutrients and feeding quality of three Germanous forage grasses, Pennisetum purpureum Schum (PPS), Pennisetum purpureum K. ScbumacbXP. Typoideum (PPT) and Saccharum officinarum Linn (SOL), were investigated and their nutrient quality, feeding quality and agronomic characters were evaluated comprehensively with Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), in order to select green forage with high yield and good quality for winter or spring. The results were shown as blow:1. For agronomic characters, emergence rate and ratio of fresh to dry grass in each season were higher in SOL than in PPS and PPT, but ratio of leaf to stem, fresh grass yield in different seasons, dry grass and fresh grass for one year were lower. These indexes were significant between PPS and PPT. The result of cluster analysis showed that PPS and PPT belonged to the same type and they were better than SOL.2. For drought resistance, Fv/Fm, Fv/Fo, Yield, qP and Pn decreased gradually in PPS and PPT while qN value, which reflected that the protective mechanism of light energy, increased with the increase of water stress intensities. However, the variation of Chlorophyll fluorescence parameters was fluctuated in SOL. The contents of MDA and Pro were significantly increased under water stress and the order from high to low was PPT>PPS>SOL ,which suggested the drought resistance ability from strong to weak was SOL>PPS>PPT.3. For forage quality, the contents of CP, EE, CASH in leaves, stems and whole plant were higher but CF was lower in PPS and PPT than in SOL, which suggested that the feeding quality of PPS and PPT was superior to SOL. The result of comprehensive evaluation showed that seasonal dynamic of feeding quality of PPS and PPT was uniform and the order of feeding quality from high to low was winter>spring>summer> autumn. The feeding quality of PPS was always better than that of PPT except in spring. The order of feeding quality of SOL from high to low was spring>summer>winter> autumn.4. For comprehensive evaluation, PPS was the best, and SOL was the worst among the tested grasses as forage. Based on the results of the present study, PPT was good comprehensively,and it was recommended for extension.