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The introduction of compatible, persistent, high quality grass-legume mixtures could increase forage quality during the summer season in Egypt. This would greatly support the sustainability of a livestock production system. A two-year field trial was carried out during the summer seasons of 2012 and 2013 at the experimental station of the Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University, Egypt. The main aim of the study was to assess the potential of forage cowpea-sudan grass (Vigna unguiculata L. Sorghum sudanese), and forage cowpea-pearl millet (Vigna unguiculata L. Pennisetum glaucum L.) mixtures to improve hay quality, utilizing three cuts, when compared with cowpea, sudan grass, and pearl millet as individual crops. Investigated forage quality parameters included dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), nitrogen-free extract (NFE), and fiber fractions (NDF, ADF, ADL) as %DM. In addition, the hay quality indices namely, relative feed value (RFV), and relative forage quality (RFQ), derived from the dry matter intake (DMI %BW), digestible dry mater (DDM %DM), and total digestible nutrients (TDN %DM), also were evaluated. Results showed that, in general, the 1 cut was of a higher quality than the 2 and 3 cuts, being characterized by highest significant NFE, and also lowest significant NDF and ADL values. However, the DM content increased significantly with the successive cuts. The forage cowpea (FCP) was characterized by its increased CP content, and thus contributed to increasing the CP content of the grass-legume mixtures compared to the pure grass plots. Moreover, screening of the tested grass-legume mixtures and monocultures with regard to the hay quality indices revealed that mixing grass and legume forage crops was an effective technique in producing hay of a similar quality to that of the forage legume alone, but better than that of the forage grass alone. The highest RFV value was a characteristic of the FCP stands (Prime), followed by the three grass-legume mixtures (Grade 2), and then the three pure grass stands (Grade 3). Similarly, according to the RFQ grading system, the pure FCP and the three mixtures were graded as “Premium” hay quality, and the three pure grass stands were graded as “Good” hay quality.

Hay quality evaluation of summer grass and legume forage monocultures and mixtures grown under irrigated conditions