BIOMASS YIELD, MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS, NUTRITIVE VALUE AND IN-SACCO DRY MATTER DEGRADABILITY OF DIFFERENT HYV NAPIER CULTIVARS.

An agronomic trial was conducted with five Napier (Pennisetumpurpureum var.) cultivars including one check ( BLRI Napier- hybrid) collected from Japan and Vietnum at the red soil Madhupur tract of Savar with objectives to investigate and compare the biomass yield, morphological characteristics, botanical fractions, nutritive value and in-sacco dry matter degradability. The selected Napier cultivars were grown under identical condition having plot size of 15 x 15 sq. m with 5 replications in each cultivar. Therefore, a total of 25 plots were made for this agronomical trial and each cultivar was placed in five plots at random. The cultivar response to biomass production performance, chemical composition and nutritional value were analyzed in an ANOVA of a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD), while the differences in the rate and extent of the DM degradability in-sacco determined using three cannulated bulls. In addition, an intake trial & digestibility of BLRI Napier-4 with BLRI Napier hybrid (silage) was carried with twelvePabna bull calves having 6 animals in each group. Each group of animal received ad libitum feeding namely Napier Vietnum and Napier hybrid. Data were analyzed for variances in a completely randomized design. Means were separated by the least square difference (LSD). It observed that significant difference (p<0.01) was observed in bio-mass yield among the different Napier cultivars. Biomass yield was in the order of BLRI N.hybrid> MERKERON > BLRI Napier 4 > WRUK-WONA > Napier -Japan. The DM yield, CP yield, no. of tillers and plant height were also significantly differed (p<0.01) among the cultivars. The number of tillers per hill was significantly higher in WRUK-WONA and the lowest in Napier -Japan. The DM content in all cultivars was mostly similar but the DM (t/ha/cut) yield was significantly higher in BLRI Napier hybrid and the lowest in Napier -Japan. Similarly, CP yield (t/ha/cut) was also significantly the highest in MERKERON and the lowest in BLRI N. Hybrid. The CP content was significantly higher (p<0.05) in MERKERON (14.43) and the lowest in BLRI N.hybrid (10.40). The ADF content was higher in BLRI N.hybrid compared to other Napier cultivars. The in-sacco dry matter (DM) degradability of MERK-ERON (78.08%) and WRUK-WONA (74.01) were significantly higher than that of Napier- Japan (57.87%), BLRI Napier hybrid (52.23) and BLRI Napier-4(51.01%), respectively. The greater value of oxalate content was in BLRI Napier-4 (0.82a±.212) and the lower value was in WRUK-WONA (0.111b±.012). The calculated metabolizable energy (ME) (MJ kg/DM) varies from 9.15 to 10.08 among the cultivars. It is mentioned here that the per cent digestibility of DM (47.05 vs50.68) and CP (48.57 vs 53.09) in BLRI Napier hybrid and BLRI Napier-4, respectively. Considering the above parameter, the MERKERON and WRUK-WONA were the best Napier cultivars for further propagation to the farmers.