Produção de forragem e características estruturais do capim-marandu e de híbridos de Urochloa durante o período de diferimento

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the Forage Sector of the Federal University of Uberlândia, in Uberlândia, MG, from August 2019 to June 2020, with the objective of comparing the productive and structural responses of marandu, mulato II, ipyporã and mavuno grasses submitted to stockpiling. The stockpiling period was 90 days, from March to June 2020. Before the stockpiling period, all plants were maintained at a height of 30 cm. At the beginning and at the end of the stockpiling period, sampling of the forage mass and separation of the morphological components (live leaf, dead leaf, live stem and dead stem) were carried out. The forage production was calculated by the difference between the forage masses at the end and beginning of the stockpiling period. The grasses did not show differences in the variables studied at the beginning of the stockpiling, except in percentage of live leaf, which was lower in mavuno grass. At the end of the stockpiling, marandu and mavuno grasses had a higher forage mass than ipyporã grass, while the percentage of live leaf was lower in mavuno grass than in ipyporã and mulato II grasses. The rate of forage production during the stockpiling period was higher for marandu grass, intermediate for mavuno grass and lower for ipyporã grass. Mulato grass II showed a forage production rate similar to mavuno and ipyporã grasses. Marandu grass stands out as the most productive grass during the stockpiling period, compared to mavuno, ipyporã and mulato II grasses. In general, when stockpiled, the structural characteristics of marandu, mavuno, ipyporã and mulato II grasses are similar.