Futterqualität und Leistung von Napier‐und Paragras ( Pennisetum purpureum bzw. Brachiaria mutica ) unter Schnittnutzung und Beweidung mit Sahiwal‐und Kreuzungsrindern auf “upland” im District Dacca/Bangladesh

Forage quality and performance of Napier and Para grass ( Pennisetum purpureum and Brachiaria mutica , resp.) cut or grazed with Sahiwal and crossed cattle on upland in the Dacca district, Bangladesh Napier and Para grass were compared with respect to important quality parameters for two years and in a rotational grazing experiment using 30 two‐years‐old heifers. Napier grass had a higher in‐vitro‐digestibility of organic matter (IVDOM) than Para grass. 77% of IVDOM variance was explained by the lignin contents, 88 % by lignin and ash contents. Accordingly a high correlation existed between lignin contents and IVDOM (r =−0.86; p 0,001). The estimation of starch units resulted in higher precision by including the lignin contents in the regression equations compared with crude fibre contents alone. Crude protein, crude fibre and magnesium contents were similar, while Napier grass contained substantially more P, K and Ca, but far less Na. In the grazing experiment on average of both years Napier grass produced 64 % of the plant yield of Para grass, but reached 80 % of the animal production. Of the forage offered by Napier grass and Para grass 85 and 67,5 %, respectively, was converted into animal production. Therefore the weight increase (kg/ha) produced by Napier grass amounted to 90 % of the groups grazing Para grass. Daily gain averaged over both grass species and experimental years reached 440 g/heifer in the Holstein‐Friesian group, 410 g with Sahiwal and 370 g with Jersey cattle.