MARDI Res. Bull., (1981) 12,2: (234-247)

THE PRODUCTIVITY, PLANT COMPONENT, PLANT MINERAL

COMPOSITION AND PERSISTENCE OF SIX TROPICAL GRASSESUNDER CUTTING ON BRIS

C.P. CHEN* AND M. ABDULLAH HASHIM-

Keywords:Sandy soil, Tropical grass, cutting frequency, Plant component,

Chemical composition, Persistence

RINGKASAN

Enam jenis rumput tropika telah dinilai selama tiga tahun dibawah dua kadar pemotongan (12 dan

l6 minggu) dari segi pengeluaran, hasil-hasil komponen pokok (daun, batang dan bahan yang mati)

komponen garam galian pokok, dan ketahanan tumbuhan di tanah bris Siri Rudua di Sungai Baging,

Pahang.

Purata hasil berat kering untuk tiga tahun adalah di antara 5 225-11 530 kgihaltahun. Jumlah

hasilnya didapati hanya separuh jika dibandingkan dari species yang terbaik di Serdang tetapi hasil itu

adalah dua hingga tiga kali ganda dari hasil rumput tempata n Zol,sia matrellc. Kadar pemotongan bagi 16

minggu adalah didapati lebih baik daripada 12 minggu bagi semua jenis rumput dari segi penghasilan berat

kering, kesuburan dan ketahanan pokok. Komponen pokok iaitu batang dan bahan yang mati adalah

berhubung rapat dengan hujan dan jumlah hasil kecuali komponen daun tidak terikat dengannya.

Walaupun kandungan garam galian yang didapati untuk semua jenis rumput adalah rendah sedikit tetapi

adalah mencukupi bagi pertumbuhan pokok dan pemakanan ternakan. Prestasi pengeluaran hasi l ,

kesuburan tumbghan dan kadar ketahanan bagi semua jenis rumput d i tanah br is adalah sepert i ber ikut :

Slenderstem dig i t>Pangola grass>Star grass>Signal grass)Guinea grass)Giant Setar ia.

INTRODUCTION

Coastal marine sand or bris is one of theproblem soils in Malaysia. It is the marinebeach sand deposit with very low fertilitystatus. Total area under bris is estimated tobe 155 400 ha in Peninsular Malaysia and40 000 ha in Sabah. Most of the bris area islocated along the east coast of PeninsularMalaysia varying in width from 180 meters toeight kilometers from the beach. Five soilseries of bris have been described, namelyBaging, Rudua, Jambu, Rompin and Rusilaseries (MOHD. Z,A.HARI,, ABDUL weHee,TrNG, and ABDUL RAHIM, 1982). Thechemical and physical properties of thedifferent bris series have been reported byIves (1967), Lew and TAN (1975), WoNG(1979), THev and KERRTDcE (1979). Theirsoil water retention characteristics in termsof water holding capacity were determinedsequentially as Rompin > Rudua> Baging>Jambu (Mouo. ZAHARI et al., 7982) andsoil temperatures were higher in bare soilsurface as compared to those under differentcrops (ABDUL WAHAB NeptS, 1984) ororganic mulching.

The present land use as practised by theinhabitants usually involved the growing of

coconuts, fruits and cashew trees on a smallscale around the compounds. Some cattle,goat and sheep are also kept and allowgd tograze freely. The cultivation of tobacco onthe bris soil in Kelantan and Trengganu hasalso been found to be very suitable (I-EoNG,1978). Because of the natural constraint inbris soil (IvES, 1967: KFIo, GIAI andVIMALA, 1979: ABDUL WAHAB NeRs,1982), it was suggested that the developmentof farming systems involving tree crops suchas cashew nut and coconut integrated withpasture and animal would be ideal forfarming on bris soil:

Since animal production will be one ofthe major component factors in land use, it isessential to assess the various feed resourceswith a view of improving forage yield andquality for increased animal production. Theindigenous species sustaining animal pro-duction in the area are mainly Zoysiamatrella, Imperata cylindrica, Zorniadiphylla, Chrysopogon aciculatus,

'L ivestock Research Div is ion, MARDI. Serdanq

a - AzJ+

Ischaemum muticum and Sporobolus

indicus. These species have been welladapted to the bris environment but are lowin DM production. Improved pasturelegumes which had been reported to be suit-able on the bris soil were Stylosanthesguianensis (VIVIAN 1959), Stylosantheshamata cv. Verano (IzHev, EveNs andAJIT, 1981) and lately Leucaenaleucocephala (Izul.v, CnEN andABDULLAH, 1983). As for grasses, a widerange of pasture grass species with differenthabitats have been introduced into the bris atSg. Bagirtg MARDI Station (WoNG, CHENand Arn, 7982).It was observed that some ofthe promising species could yield about8- 16.8 tonlhalyear of dry matter productionunder proper fertilization and management.It was also observed that a frequency ofdefoliation of between 6-10 weeks was toosevere resulting in a lot of die-back. Based onthis preliminary information, further evalua-tion was carried out to asspss the produc-tivit ies, pasture plant components, plantmineral contents and persistence of sixselected tropical grasses under three- andfour- r;ronth of cutting frequencies at thesame location for a period of three years.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The experiment was conducted in thepasture introduction plots at MARDIResearch Station in Sg. Baging, Pahang (lat.4"-04'N, long. 103'-25'E) on the Ruduasoil series. Soil chemical properties of Ruduasoil series from all the treatment plots takenat the beginning (23rd Aug. 1979) and at the

end (23rd June 1981) of the experiment arelisted in Table 2. Rainfall data recorded atthe station were arranged accordingly tocoincide with the 12- and 16-week pastureharvesting time so as to relate pasture growthwith rainfall (Figure I ).

A split plot design with three replicateshas been adopted to incorporate the sixtropical grasses (Table 1/ in the main plot(6.5 x 3.5 m) and two cut t ing f requencies (12and 16 weeks) in the subplots (3.25 x 3.5 m).

All pastures were planted from rootedmaterial by hand at f ixed distance giving atotal of 192 plants per plot on 26th April1978. Basal ferti l izers were applied at therates of 30:30:30 of N:P:K per hectare,immediately after planting. Maintenancefertilizers were applied at the rates of 300 kgN/ha/year in the form of urea and 100 kgeach of P and K per hectare in the form oftriple superphosphate and muriate of potashrespectively. All ferti l izers were equally splitand applied immedidtely after each harvest,totall ing to four and three applications per1 'ear for the respect ive l2- and l6-u 'eekdefoliation regimes. During the pastureestablishment period, the swards were cutback twice so as to allow the pastures toachieve even swards. The last cut back wasmade on the 12th March 1979. before actualcutting treatment w'as imposed.

In each of the scheduled harvest ing,four randomised samples (0.5 x 1 m) weretaken from each sub-plot at cutting heightsbetween 10- 15 cm, depending on species.

Table 1. Treatments of the experiment

Species Common name Frequency ofdefoliation

Brachiaria decumbens

Cynodon plectostachyw

Digitaria decumbens'

Digitaria pentzii cv. Slenderstem

Panicummaximum

Setaria sphacelata cv. Splendida

Signal grass

Star grass

Pangola grass

Slenderstem digit

Common guinea

Giant setaria

12 weeks

and

16 weeks

235

Table 2. Chemical properties of Rudua Soil Series taken at the beginning and at the end of the

experiment at MARDI Sungai Baging Station

Element Depth(cm)

Outsidepasture plot

(Control)

Insidepasture plot(23.8.7e)

Insidepasture plot

(23.6.8r)

N %

P (ppm)

K (ppm)

o . M . ( % )

pH

Ca (ppm)

0- 1515-3030-45

0- 1515-3030-45

0- 1515 -30

30-45

0- 1515 -30

30-45

0- 1515-3030-45

0- 1515-3030-45

0.050.040.02

J

11

1075

0.760.700.46

s.255.355.35

JZ

100.4

0.0320.025

78.647.9

2 1 . 613.77

1 . 0 10.83

5 . 1 95 . 1 1

84.343.4

0.070.058

92.285.0

19.613.8

1 . 1 00.92

4.7884.777

58.434.9

N - Total NP - Bray and Kurt No. 1Exchangeable K, CaO.M. - Walkey andBlack MethodpH - 10g soil to 50ml of water.

The remaining pasture swards in the sub-plotwere then cut back to the same height andtheir fresh bulk weights recorded. One of thefour cut samples were hand sorted forrecording different plant part componentssuch as leaf, stem and dead materials. Duringthe sorting, all leaves were stripped off fromthe stem and later separated into greenleaves and dead leaf materials. The deadstems were included in the dead material butit was observed that they were negligible. Allsamples were oven-dried at about 75"C-80'C for 48 hours. Again one of the foursamples was grounded and sent for plantminerals analysis.

Pasture sward growth condition wasrecorded through visual scoring in five

occasions (July 28, 1980; October 6, 1980;January 5, 1981; Apri l 7, 1981; June 6, 1981),after one and a half years of starting theexperiment. Other conditions recorded wereplant vigour (ranking 5-the highest to 1-the lowest), pasture plant survival (0%-700%), bare ground (0Vo-l00Vo) andinvasion of other weeds (\Vc-100%). Theplant vigour was recorded by taking intoconsideration the amount of pasture avail-able, the colour of the swards and the areacovered up by the sward.

Other than statistical analyses ofvariance, the relationships between rainfail,total DM yield and plant part'components aswell as the covariance between DM yield andplant part components were also computed.

236

RESULTS

Rainfall

Attempts were made to relate the

three- and four-monthly cumulative rainfalldaLa (Figure 1) to the DM yield (Table 4) and

to the pasture plant components (Figure 3).Analyses showed that the pasture production

and their plant components were highly

influenced by the rainfall and the number of

rainy days during the defoliation period. Therelationships for the six species are listed in

Table 3. The correlation coefficientsbetween the rainfall, rainy day and the over-all mean DM yield of the six grasses were r :

0.67 and r : 0.77, respectively. Of all the sixspecies tested, Giant setaria was least

16week cutting

+ o D M

t 4Y r . I

affected by the rain, and the leaf componentwas not significantly related to the rain.

Dry Matter Production

The cumulative DM yield of pastures

over the three-year period varies greatly

between the species with Slenderstem digit(34 590 kg/ha), Stargrass (29 946 kg/ha) andPangola grass (29 206 kglha) ranked signifi-cantly higher than Signal grass (25 754 kglha) and Guinea (22 754 kg/ha). Giant setaria(18 386 kg/ha) was significantly the lowestyielder

-among all. Significant differences in

DM yield between species did not occur untilthe third year (Table 4). The DM yield of allspecies declined steadily year by year exceptSignal grass with a l07c increase in yield in

.d

a__-_.

'. Rainfall

g 2 m

q)

q)

E "L

A a m

t .

AnA ^

0 &

8Y r . I I

t2YT. I I I

Number of harvest

Figure l. Effect of rainfall on changes in dry matter yield of tropical grass under differentfrequencies on bris.

z J t

Table 3. Correlation coefficient studies between rainfall, pasture DM yield and plant part

components of six tropical grasses on bris

Species

Rainfall ADM

LeafDM

Stem DM

Dead Mat.DM

Total DM

ns ns0.25 0.41

ns ns0.35 0.3s

ns0.43 0.55

ns ns0.38 0.4'l

0.44 0.47t *

0.53 0 .51

0.76 0,76 0.67t * t * * *

0.69 0.70 063

ns ns ns ns0 .33 0 .33 0 .16 0 .14

* * l * t r

0.62 0.49 0.67 0.70

ns ns ns0.32 0.27 0.22

t * l t t l

0.66 0.63 0.66

ns *t

0.18 0.65 0.54a * l t r r

0.52 0.75 0.61

0.67 0.64 0.52 0.64 0.64i * * t t a l t a I t

0.60 0.69 0.54 0.76 0.65

TDM TDM TDM TDMPlant components

6

Leaf DM

Stem DM

Dead Mat. DM

0.86

0.89

0.91

ns0.43

ns0.69

0.92

ns0.57

0.91

0.84

0.88

0.n

0.90

0.!x

0.98

0.98

0.i)6

0.nns

o.44

ao

LeafDM

Stem DM

Dead Mat. DM

ns0.82

0.98

0.9'l

ns0 .39

ns0.77

0.94

ns0.69

ns0.32

ns0.78

0.89

0.96

o.92

ns0.49

0.95

0.82

0.94

0.9E

0.87

€

Leaf DM

StemDM

Dead Mat. DM

ns0.83

NS

0.'76

ns-0.07

0.96

ns0.u

0.94

ns0.20

0.98

ns0.66

ns0.54

0.96

nso.79

ns0.48

ns0.59

ns0.6'l

0.E9

0.93

0.86

1 = Giant *tariai2 = Guinea gras;

A = Rainy day;B = Rainfall lTDM = TotalDM; Dcad Mat. DM = Dcad Mstcrial DM'P< 5Vc ; "P <lq. ; " 'P(0. I9a ; ns = not signifiani.

the second year. Giant setaria and Guineagrass declined the most in DM i' ield parti-

cularly in year III with only 7(t and 14't,respectively, of the init ial yield, whileSlenderstem digit, Star grass and Pangolagrass showed the least decline in yield.

Cutting Frequency

Cutting frequency affected the pro-

duction of grasses. Cutting at 12-weekinterval produced a significant drop of 17itin overall yield in three years as compared tothat at 16-week cutting interval. All speciesincreased in yield when cutting frequency

5 = Stffgrsi6 = Si8n8l grK

reduced from 12 weeks to 16 weeks. Theperformance of the six species in terms ofDM yield under both cutt ing regimes wereranked accordingly, the highest beingSlenderstem digit followed by the Parlgola,Star grass, Signal, Guinea and Giant setaria(Figure 2). There were no interactionbetween pasture species and frequency oTdefoliation in DM yield. This trend was alsosimilar to all parameters subsequentlymeasured.

Pasture Plant Part Components

Results indicated that DM yield of stem

3 = SlcndcBtcm digit;4 = Pangola digit;

238

Table 4. The effect of cutting interval on cummulative dry matter production of six tropical

grasses on bris

Year II Yerr IIIYear I

Speciesl2-weck 16wcck Mean l2-week lGweek Mean 12-week l6week Mean

Slendentem digit

Star grass

Pangola gnss

Signal grass

Guinca grass

Giant sctaria

t3 25r8u7

10 460

9 474

8 303

7 876

t4 167

11 661

13 898

9 wlt 452

12ffi

137Cf

r0 25d

12 119

9 674

9 87s

10 2ss

12 574

10 005

9 743

9 160

7 8 m

5 23r

11 703

l0 089

9 150

t2 392

9 298

9 556

12 13s

10 04f

944d

fi77e

8 549't 39!

7 9lr

8 959

5 892

4 439

3 650

540

9 572r0 33192695 3135 m 3

930

8 74te & 97 58(r4 eod4 32&

73f

s 70* r2 ?l7r 9 3rt ro 4rt 5 50* 7 089Mean

a.b.c=Mcenwithdircr€ntspcKiptsinthcsn€@|umnwitt, in.t,.y**lg' i6c.ntlydiffcrcntfrom*hothcl(P<{).05)

t2 16

Cutting(week)

Figure 2. Effect of two cutting frequencies on

mean dry matter production of six grqsses

over three Years on bris'

and dead mater ia ls were major components

of the total pasture yield as compared to that

of leaf in the pasture sward (Table 5,)' Both

the stem and dead material components were

significantly (P < 0. 1% ) related to the overall

total DM yield of pasture for three consecu-

tive years; whereas the leaf component was

not clear. Further analyses on their elation-

ships for individual species showed similar

trends (Table 3).

The mean DM Yield of two cuttrng

regimes and changes of different plant part

components of the six species are shown in

Table 5 and Figure 3.

Slenderstem digit ' Star grass and

Pangola grass had higher stem components

tha; Sig;al grass which in turn was higher

than Giant setaria and Guinea grass'

Slenderstem digit, Guinea grass' Star grass

and Pangola grass also had higher dead

materials than Giant setaria. Signal grass had

the least dead plant materials. Generally, the

stemmy species such as Slenderstem digit,

Star grass and Pangola grass had lower

amount of leaf in the sward than Signal grass,

Guinea and Giant setaria. Similar but clearer

pictures were shown when comparisons were

made on leaf to stem ratio of the various

grasses. The amount of leaf, stem and dead

material components in pasture swards were

also affected by the frequency of defoliation'

The 12-week cutting regime had lower

amount of overall DM in various plant parts

than the 16-week cutting regime (Figure 3)'

Plant Minerals ComPosition

The changes in mean Plant minerals

composition of six tropical grasses under two

cutting frequencies on bris are shown in

Table 6.

1lmo .

^ ]

2

1

f

6

- t)

ts

E s mo

€ 7m0

- t2

b

1 = Signal grass2 : Star grass3 : Pangola grass4 : Slenderstem digit5 : Guinea grass6 : Giant setaria

(a) Percent Nitrogen and

Production

Nitrogen

Chemical analYses showed that the

grass species differed (P <0.05) in plant

nittog"n content in year 1, ranging from

1.20% N to 1.75% N. Guinea, Star grass and

Slenderstem digit ranked higher followed by

Signal and Pangola grass and Giant setaria

239

Table 5. Mean DM yield of different pasture plant components at two cutting frequencies

for six troPical grasses on bris

Leaf Stem Dead materialSpecies

Year ISlenderstem digit

Pangola grass

Star grass

Giant setaria

Guinea grass

Signal grass

F 1 6

F 1 2

2 614.t

3',l57.44

2 65',7.trs 066.f4 766.4^

3 30r.q

6 35634

5 385.fb

4 $5.qb^ t

2 570.1:"

3 842.*c

1 8 : ' 7 . q

4 739.tr3 036.d2 g6t.4b

2 621.*

r 062.t4 758.f

3 74r. t3 646.f

4 624.8

3 s77.f3 915.14

2 477.f

Year IISlenderstem digit

Pangola grass

Star grass

Signal grass

Giant setaria

Guinea grass

F 1 6

F 1 2

1745.*

2 68',7.4ab

1 8 8 1 . *

4 308.s^ L

3 220.V"t t t t A bJ t + + . L

5 533.44

4 345.tb

s 342.t

4 943.8

2 0s6.d2 2r0.&

4 8s9.f2 41,4.Pc

2 g233bc

| 298.tc

I g62.oc

3 34g.4ab

2 47',7.&

3 139.8

4124.e

3 638.4b

3 2n.q2 454.4b

Year IIISlenderstem digit

Pangola grass

Star grass

Signal grass

Giant setaria

Guinea grass

F 1 6

F t 2

2 049.f

2 763.tr2 33834

2 348.44

388.d

r 842.f

3 547.r4

2 933.9

3 677.r4

1 794.4b

189.f

884.*c

3145.44

1 884.3b

3 629.q

7$.fd

1s6.t'1 5 9 9 . d c

2 000.34

2 094.t

2 619.trr 956.t

2 469.74

r 45',7.4b

a,b,c : Mean with different superscripts in the same column within the year are significantly different from each other

(P<0.05)F 16 : 16-week cuttingF 12 : l2-week cutting

240

\ t,///

<-{E: ) 5 ) j ,Et - / / \l<(_

A =

--<i.

T

q

O

'N

{

o

I

i Rx x

E + ; n 1 5

(eq/31) p1er,{ :a11eru,{:q

.___.-S_,

-\_ r.4/ !\ \ \

..// ./Ft i r !\ ) r . E r E

\ J l 6 r g/./ ./ A

/ ' \ \ -' \ t i

\ \

\

--Et)\_.\.r_

I ' l . E

)s)E. / ; / iE\--\\i

/-///\ l \ ;

1r(,'E./= /', / :\ - s I # \ !

H --=--)--\ii r-,-r-r-r-

241

Table 6. Changes in mean plant minerals composition of six tropical grasses under

two cutting frequencies on bris

N prodwtion

Yr. I Yr. II

N 7 c

Yr. I Yr. II

P V o

Yr. I Yr. I I

K V o

Yr. I Yr. l l

Ct 9o

Yr. I Yr. I I

M g E o

Yr. I Yr. l I

ZnWYr. I Yr. II

Cu ppm

Yr. I Yr. U

Mn PPoYr. I Yr.I l

b d b e b r b25.4 19.2 l0.l 3.6 lG.7 115.4

b c d b b r r b27.5 2l.r r2.5 2.1 163.7 152.3

b r b a b r b r r b25.5 25.s 14.1 3.1 S.0 15 3

t l l ! r b35.2 2A.5 m.6 4.1 116.7 r13 7

b c d s b r b t b26.8 22.1 t4.3 2.8 101.1 1(B'6

b b c b r b r '23.1 23.3 t.2 3.4 161.2 1E1.2

r b r b c0./g 0.12 0.G

| b $ b0.41 0.13 0.lo

r b b bo.a 0.(B 0.o7

! a b0.48 0.16 0.10

a a b bo.4't 0.10 0.10

b s b ao.32 0J1 0.15

e b a l c b c d b r b1.55 1.45 0.35 0.35 1.50 1.15 0'42

a a l c c d r b l b1.75 1.75 0.3,1 0.33 l.$ 1.33 O'A

b c a r b c r b c r b rr.32 1.5E 0.35 0.37 1.75 l.3t 0.' l t

a s r ! d a r1.62 1.64 0.38 0.'16 1.39 1.42 0 49

a a r r b e b s b a1.'75 1.52 0.37 0.43 l.n 137 0.44

c a a c l a b1.20 1.47 0.36 0.35 1.85 1 45 0.8

a| 13'1.2

I

2 1t?..4a

3 158.t

a

4 196.3

a

5 172.6

a

6 1 1 4 . 9

a141.3

I

168.2

a134.t

a1 7 1 . E

a127.1

a107. I

b a0.35 0.41

a bo . 3 1 0 . 5

b a101.3 136.7

l a

r41.8 124.4

b 8 8 a t

0.09 25.8 22.8 13.3 3.7

a 8 a a b0.11 28.9 2i .9 13.3 2.8

a a a a1.55 1.41 0.43 0.45

a a a bl . e 1 . 2 8 0 . 4 1 0 . 4 1

1 2 - v e k a a b aCutting 1:5.7 132.3 1.39 1 59

l G w e k b a a bCuniDg 195.0 155.2 |.6'7 I56

a

o.t2a

0 . l t

a,b,c, = Mcrns vith diffcrcnt $FtrnpB in rh. w @tmn wihin tlE yd e danilidtly dificrcnt fim .rdl dhcr (P <0 6)'

2 = Stulns3 = P.npblls4 = SbrdcM diSit

:=$r-ffi

the lowest . However. percent n i t rogen was

not significant in the second year. During the

two-year period, most of these species main-

tained their percent N level betweeh

l.20Vc,-I.75ci except Guinea and Signal

grass, which dropped respectively from

| .7 5Vc to 7 .52cic N and {rom | 55% to | .45c/c

N. Cutting frequency also affected plant

nitrogen content in the first year but not in

the second year. Under the 12-week cutting,

all species showed an increase in plant N

content in year II as compared to Year I, but

reversed results were obtained when these

were cut at 16-week with an exception of

Pangola grass and Giant setar ia.

Total nitrogen production per hectare

per year of pasture sward were not significant

among the six species in both year I and II,

but it was clearly shown that their production

declined with time. When compared with

year I, Guinea grass dropped the most in

year II wifh 26.4C'c, Pangola grass with

75.11/c, Slenderstem digit with 12.5ci, Stargrass with 7.17c and the Giant setaria with

6.87c except Signal grass with an increase of

three percent. Slenderstem digit showed the

best capacity of producing 196.3-171.8 kg

N/haiyear whi le Giant setar ia was most

inferior in producing 114.9- 107.1 kg N/ha/

vear.

(b) Phosphorus

The percent P in the Plant of the

various species ranged from0.34Vo toO.38Vo

in year I and from 0 .33c/c to0.46Vo in year II.

These values in plants varied significantly

only in the second year in both the species

and cutting frequency. Under 12-week

defoliation regime, the plant P values were

higher than that under 16-week cutting and

that in year II the Slenderstem digit (0.52%-

0.39%) was significantly higher than the

Guinea (0.44c/c-0.42%), Pangola grass

(0.42%-0.32%) wh\ch again was signifi-

cantly higher than Signal (0.33%-0.35%).

The overall mean plant phosphorus contents

were 0.36Vc under 16-week cutting and

0.38 ' ; under l2-week cut t ing.

(c) Potassium

The amount of potassium in the plant

declined as the experiment proceeded to

second year. This was the only mineral in the

plant that did not differ much between

species and between cutting treatments. The

mineral K in the plant ranged from 1.39% to

1.85% in year I and 1.15% to 1.46% in year

IL The lowest potassium in the plant was

recorded on Signal grass in Year II(1 .28% - 1 .037c) whereas the highest was on

Giant setaria.

242

(d) Other minerals

Other minerals analysed in plants were

calcium, magnesium, zinc, coPPer and

manganese. These elements varied signifi-

cantly between species as well as cutting

frequency. Slenderstem digit was consis-

tently higher in Ca, Mg,Zn and Cu;whereas

Signal grass was consistently lower in Mg,Zn

and Cu. Calcium content in Giant setaria was

the lowest (0.297c-0.32Vt\ among the

species tested.

Scoring of Pasture Condition

Visual assessment of pasture such asplant vigour, bareground, weeds invasion

and plant survival during the course of the

experiment are listed in Table 7.

It was clearly observed that the plant

vigour of all the slx species declined with time(Figure 4) and was affected by rainfallpattern. Slenderstem digit had the best

overall mean plant vigour followed closely by

Star grass, Signal and Pangola grass. Theleast were Guinea and,Giant setaria. Mean-while, the swards of Slenderstem andPangola grass were dense with few weeds andlitt le bare-ground area but lots of deadmaterials. The pasture condition of Stargrass was good, except for the extensiveinvasion of weeds into the sparse grass

sward. The unusual, sudden decline invasion

of weeds into the sparse grass sward. The

unusual, sudden decline in plant number was

observed towards the end of the trial and led

to low weed record but the highest bare-

ground percentage (53.3%) in the Signal

grass plots. One common feature observed

during the trial was that all pasture swards

seemed to be light green in colour and in

some cases even yellowish in colour

especially during the dry spell. The worsl

species were Guinea and Giant setaria which

were pale green in colour.

Pasture survival was similar to the plant

vigour score; the highest ranking species

were Slenderstem digit (86.77c) and Pangolagrass (78.3%) followed with Signal grass(56.7%) and Star grass (32.5Vo) and the

lowest Guinea (8.3%) and Giant setaria( 0 % ) .

DISCUSSION

The low animal production in the

coastal marine sand or bris is closelyassociated with low feed availabil ity. The

major species that has been supporting theruminant population in the area is Zoysiamatrella. It is an indigenous species adaptedto the low ferti l i ty habitat. The DM produc-

tion of this indigenous species was estimatedaround 1 698 kg/ha/year with no ferti l izerand 4 244 kg/ha/year with 300 kg N/ha/yearfertilizer cut every three to four months, with

Table 7. Visual assessment of pasture plant vigour, bare ground, weeds invasion and plant

survival under two defoliation regimes of six tropical grasses on bris

Plant sunrival (7c )

Spp. Fr2 Fl6 Mean

o:.'4]11931l!q1y,899.

Fl2 F16 Mean

Pasture sward condition

F12 Fl6

Bare ground(vo )

Weeds(c")

Bare ground Weeds(E,) (7,)

125

4

5

6

46.7 6.7

26.7 38.3

70.0 tl6.7

tx.1 tlf.j

8.0 8.'l

0 0

56.7 3.1

32.5 3.8

78.3 3 .1

,!5.7 4.2

8.3 2-6

0 1 .9

3.2 61.'.t (2s-m)

4 . 1 6 . 7 ( s - 1 0 )

3 .3 28 .3 ( s -7s)

4.3 17.0 ( 5-3o)

2.e 6.7 (20-70)

2.1 4O.0 ( 0-40)

s . 0 ( - )s3.3 (20- 90)

4s.0( 0- q))

s . 0 ( - )20.0(r0- 50)63.3 (30- rm)

53.3 (30-70)

8 .3 ( s - 15)

12.3 ( 7 -20)

10 .0 ( 5 -15)

21.7 (10-30)

0 ( - )

0 ( - )21 .7 ( s - ss )7.67 ( s- 10)s . 0 ( - )

2o.o ( s- ls)53.3 (30-lm)

3.4

4 .4

3 .5

4 .4

3 . 3

2 .3

'Ranking S-highcst to l-thc lowest.Fl2 = 12-wak cuningFl6 = I6-wak aningPercnthdis = Rengc of munrc

I = Sigmlgns;2 = StrrgrN;3 = Pmgola tras;

4 : Slcn&ntcm digit;5 : Guirca gras;6 = GiEnt *taria.

L+J

I

l i .J a -

6 ' :{ ^' t J

1 : Signal grass2 : Star grass3 = Pangola grass4 : Slenderstem digil

4 . -

5 = Guinea grass6 = Giant setaria

2 . - ,

o tln 10/80 1/81 4l8r 6t8r

Date of scoring

Figure 4. Plant vigour score of six tropicalgrasses on bris.

percent nitrogen of l. l77o and 1.27%respectively. Although the DM yield of thesix selected grasses in this experiment rangedfrom a mean of 6128 to 11 530 kglhalyear(Table 4), they are not as impressive whencompared to the yield of promising speciesgrown in inland soils ranging from 18 000-28 000 kglhalyear (Wofuc, 1980). Neverthe-less, it is a tremendous increase in forageyield on bris soil. The crude protein avail-abil ity of these pastures in terms of plantpercent nitrogen were ranging from a meanof 1.339'c to I.759'b which is certainly higherthan that of native species indicated above. Itis thus believed that these improved pasturespecies have potential advantages over theirnative pastures, that is, two to three timeshigher in yield. Results also showed thatmost of these species should be managedunder longer cutting intervals of four monthsto sustain higher plant survival rate (or per-sistence) as well as higher DM production. Itwas thus recorded that total DM yield of thesix grasses did not differ significantly untilthe third year where the defoliation effecttook place (Table 4) and the plant vigour ofGuinea and Giant setaria dropped (Figure 4)resulting serious die-back of plant. However,the performanc of Slenderstem digit in termsof DM yield (Table 4). , plant vigour, survivalrate (Table 7) and amount of dead materialsin the pasture sward (Table 5) suggested

frequent defoliation of about three monthsmight be more suitable.

Like the Leucaena species (IzHAl'ri etal., 1983), the production of all these grassesin bris were positively related to rainfall(Figure 1) and the number of rainy day avail-able during the growing period (Table 3).Furthermore, in both cases the correlationcoefficient studies between the plant part

components and the rainfall (Table 3) andbetween plant part components and totalpastures DM yield as well, indicated that theleaf component in the pasture swards wasmore stable and independent attribute thanthe stem and dead material components. Itcould be explained that because of theenvironment, the pasture always regulatedto maintain a constant amount of photo-synthetic leaf surface area in the swards.Thus, the total DM yield of these pastureswere related stronger to the stem and deadmaterial components rather than to the fairlyconstant leaf component in the sward. Onthe other hand, other plant part componentssuch as stem and dead material had definiteroles in the pasture sward production. Theformer was having positive effect on plantgrowth while the later was having negativeeffect on forage. It is believed that thestemmy species (Table 5 and Figure 3) suchas Slenderstem digit, Star grass and Signalgrass were practically producing plenty ofrhizomes or runners to spread fast and togrow well, especially during the wet season;whereas, clumpy species, such as Guinea andGiant setaria were l imited to their init iallyestablished ti l lers to withstand stress later.Species with stemmy and creeping natureperformed and survived better than the leafyand clumpy species. Same results wereobtained in an earlier study of five digitariaswhere Slenderstem digit characterised withlowest but least fluctuated leaf/stem ratiowas the best among all (GteN and Aln,1981 ) .

Pot study carried out earlier by THanaand KERRtocE (1979) showed that styloresponded almost to all the mineral fertilizersuch as P, K, S and Cu applied on all themajor bris soil series and to a certain extend

244

the B, Mo and Mg. As compared to thatreported by WoNc (1980), it is not surprisingthat lower mineral status in the various plantspecies were obtained in the field (Table 6),although high fertilizer rates 300 kg N, 100 kgP and 100 kg K per hectare per year wereapplied in split application of three to fourmonths interval. It is worthwhile to note thatthe phosphorus level is high in all the speciestested as compared to the 0.769'c to 0.25%critical level of nine tropical grasses workeoout by ANDREW and RosINs (I97I) and thewell fertilized grasses grown on inland soil atSerdang by WoNc (1980). It indicates thatthe high phosphorus application resulted inhigh phosphorus absorption by plant topsand that could result in the depression effecton nitrogen and potassium concentration inthe plant (ANonrw and RosrNs, 1971); orthere were problems in the absorption of Nand K ferti l izer by plant due to the defolia-tion effect. The amount of potassium in plantof all the six species were low, ranging from1.39,ct -1.85t 'c in year I and f rom 7. I5% toI.46c,'c in year IL In fact, potassium concen-tration in the grass ranging frorn l.) lL to1.592 would be considered deficient in thenutrient. The luxury calcium found in bulkpasture swards were certainly higher than theaverage functional requirements of grassesand cereals of between 0.05.1c to 0. 10ci(toNEnaceN and $.lowsel-I-, 1969). Thismight be due to the relatively higher calciumlevel available in soil (Table 2).

The nutrient levels in these improvedpasture in relation to beef cattle require-ments as suggested by MINSoN, Sroess,FIEGARTy and heyNp (1976) indicated thatall the elements measured were sufficient forthe finishing beef cattle except Mg and Cu,especially in year II, where their values werebelow 0.l2rt and 10 ppm respectively andZn was just marginal. Although the N con-centration in plant of all species were com-paratively low and very l itt le variationbetween species (Table 6) they were stillabove the crit ical 79b crude protein, the levelbelow which the dry matter intake of animalwill be affected (NfiLFoRD and MINrsoN,1965). Since there were l itt le variation in

terms of plant nitrogen concentrationbetween forage species, it is suggested thatany increase in the total feed in terms of bulkDM production would be the most importantand effective factors for the improvement ofanimal production in bris soil.

Cf the six species tested on bris,Slenderstem digit was most impressive withthe best plant growing vigour (4.3 unit)resulting in the highest yielding capacity(11 530 kg DM/halyear), with 36.8% of deadmaterial, high nitrogen production (184 kgN/halyear), and 86.7% survival rate ofpastures sward (less than five percent ofweeds and about l0-17Vc of bare-sroundarea) .

Pangola digit tended to respond tolonger cutting interval to maintain purepasture sward in preventing the invasion ofweeds as well as the increase of bare-groundarea. With moderate growth vigour (3.3unit), the species was similar to Slenderstemdigit in DM production, but had less deadmaterial (25.ICi) and higher amount ofgreen leaf (31.5ci) than Slenderstem digit inthe pasture sward. Although, both the twodigits had low leaf/stem ratio, their f ine andsoft stemmy materials were easily consumedby grazinganimals.

Visually, the performance of Star grasswas almost as good as that of the two digits. Itwas the only species that outyielded (9 982kglhalyear) the production as was obtainedat Serdang (6114 kg/ha/year) (WoNc,1980). Star grass formed a sparse swardstructure in field and that it contained 21.7V((at 16-week cutting) to 53.3% (at 12-weekcutting) of weeds underneath. The com-ponent of leaf:stem;dead material in thesward were 23.0Vo:45.6Vo:31.47o, respec-tively (Table5). It was the worst combinationof sward among all the species tested. Thistough stemmy nature with relatively lowdensity leaf material may affect the animalbite size of below 0.30 g OM per bite thateventually may limit the daily intake of herb-age by grazing cattle (Sroees, 1973). The

245

stemmy nature of the Pangola and Slender-

stem digit were very different from that ot

the Star"grass. They are finer and softer and

are expJcted to be more acceptable to

grazing animal.

The best plant component in the sward

recorded was on Signal grass which had

leaf:stem:dead material ratio of 45'07":

41.'7%:12.37c, respectively' Due to the

significant effect of cutting in the third year'

the mean percent survival of the Signal grass

declined fiom 98% (Januari, 1981) to 88%

(April, 1981) and increased ftom42Vc (June'

iOAt 1 u"A rc 56.7'1 (December, 1981)' Both

plani vigot r and leaf/stem ratio recorded

*"t" -od"tate. It was very responsive to

rain (Table 3). Severe drought always result

in quick die-back of the sward leaving a lot of

bare-ground and very little invasion of weeds

in that short period. Fast recovery of the

sward during wet season was observed'

Lower mineral status in plant with special

reference to N, K, ldg, Zn and Cu were also

observed.

Guinea and Giant setaria were similar' with

very low plant vigour, low survival tates'

ptenty of ieaves und u"ty few stems in the

,*utd, with the exception of'Guinea grass

which sustained most dead material \42"6'to )

while Giant setaria the minimum (25'8)'

Because of their clumpy nature' both these

species allowed increased invasion ot weeds

formation on bare-ground areas'

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to express their

appreciation to their colleague Mr' P'K' Eng

toi ttl. valuable suggestion and assistance in

planning the trial and Dr' C' Devendra'

ifeaa oi Feed Resources and Animal Nutri-

tion Branch for his deep concern during the

course of this experiment' They are in debt to

Dr. C.S. Lee, Head of Statistic Branch for

the statistical analyses and his constructive

suggestions in the preparation of thispaper'

Tlie"y would like also to thank the Central

Analytical Services Branch for handling all

the oiant chemical analyses and Encik Abas

b. Abd. Ghani forthe soil chemical analyses'

Soil cHeN, c.P. and ArIr, s.s' (1981). The per-

12, formance of five Digitaria lines undergrazing. Malays' agric' J' 53,34-44'

246

The qrowth characteristics of both

SUMMARY

Six t ropical grasses were assessed under two defol iat ion regimes on their product iv i t ies ' p lant part

components, p lant mineral composi t ions and pers istence on br i i soi l (Rudua ser ies) at Sungai Baging

Station for three .vears'

ThemeanDMy ie l dsove r t h reeyea rs ranged f rom5225 -11530kg /ha / yea randwereabou t ' ha l f

the production of tne u'est species achieved in the inland soil at Serdang but were about two to three times

higher in yield than tJindig.nou. z ov-sia matrella. A frequency of four-monthly cutting was better thall

the three-monthly cutting for all the species in terms of DM production, plant vigour and plant survival'

Plant part component (stem and dead materials) in the pasture swards were strongly related to the rainfall

as well as to the total DM yield with the exceptron of leaf component which was rather independent under

such an .nu,ron-"nr. plant mineral contenti of the six species, though slightly iirwer in their values' were

suf f ic ient forplantgrowthandforf in ishinganimal .Theperformanceofspeciesonbr is intermsofplantproduction, plant vigour, and survival rate were in the ftllowing sequence: Slenderstem digit'Pangola

grass- Star giass> Signal grass>Guinea grass>Giant setarla'

REFERENCES ANOREW, C.S. ANd ROBINS' M'F' (1971)'

The effect of PhosPhorus on the

ASoUL WAHAB NepIS (1982). Research growth, chemical composition, and

Strategies on bris soil' Report submitted iritical phosphorus percentages of

7or iris soil Research Meeting in some tropical pasture grasses' Aust' J'"MARDI

on2tst August 1982. Agri. Res.22,693-706.

ABDUL WAHAB NAFIS (1984)' Bris

Temperature. MARDI Res' Bull'171-179.

IvES, D.W. (1967). Reconnaissance soilsurvey of South East Pahang. MalayanSoil SurveY RePort ly'o. 4, 1961.Department of Agriculture, KualaLumpur.

IZHAM, A., EVANS, T.R. and AIIT, S.S.(1981). A comParison of Plantingtechniques for legume establishment innative pasture under coconuts on brissoi ls. MARDI Res. Bul l .9,14-23.

VIISIVT, A,, CHEN, C.P. ANd ABDULLAH,

H.M. (1983). The performance of f ive

selected Leucaena leucocephala access-

ions on sandy soil in Peninsular

Malaysia. In: The use of Leucaena for

l ivestock feed in Asia. Pub' bY:

ASPAC, FFTC Extension Bulletin No'

198, pP. 22-37.

KHo, B.L. , C{AI , T.B. and Mnanle, P.(1979). Research into farming system

on bris and tin-tail ings. Proceeding of

MARDI Annual Senior Staff Con'

ference 1979, Paper No.6, Serdang.

IAw, W.M. andTAN, N.H. (1975). Range ofproperties of Peninsular MalaysianSoils. Paper presented at'Third AseanSoils Conference'. Proc. Third Asean

Soil Conference, Kuala LumPur, 1975,p p . 4 3 - 6 8 .

[-EoNc, A.C. (1978). Comparative studieson the effect of three plant spacing on

the performance of three flue curedVirginia tobacco varieties on three soil

type in Kelantan. MARDI Res. Bull.6,129-13s.

I-ONERAGAN. J.F. ANd $\TOWBALL, K.

(1969). Calcium requirements of

plants. Aust. agric. Res. 20, 465 -1'78.

N4ILFORD, R. andN'IINSON, D.J. (1965). Therelation between the crude protein anddigestible crude protein content oftropical pasture plants. I. Brit. Grassld.Soc. , 20 , 177 - 199 .

Accepted for publication on 27th April, 1981

MINSON, D.J., STOESS, T.H., FIEGARTY'M.P. and ['LAYNE, M.J. (19'16).

Measuring the nutritive value ofpasture plants. In: Tropical PastureResearch - PrinciPles and Methodsedited bY: K.H. Shaw and BrYan W.W'Published by Commonwealth Agricul-tural Bureauz. PP. 308-337 .

MOHI. ZAHARI ABU BAKAR, ANO.WAHAB NAFIS, TING C.C. and Aso.FTAHIM MoHAMAD (1982). Distribu-tion, characterization and utilization ofprOblem soils in Malaysia - a countryreport. Tropical Agriculture ResearchSeries No. 15,41-61, Tropical Agricul-ture Research Center, Ministry ofAgriculture, Forestry and Fisheries,Japan.

Sroess, T.H. (1973). The effect of plantstructure on the intake of tropicalpastures. I. Variation in the bite size ofgrazing cattle. Aust. J. Res. 24,809-8 1 9 .

THeu, K.C. and KERRIDGE, P.c. (1979).Assessment of nutrient status of coastalmarine sand (Bris) of PeninsularMalaysia by pot exPeriment usingSrylosanthes guianensis. MARDI Res.B u l l . 7 , 4 3 - 5 4 .

VIVIAN, L.A.C. (1959). The leguminousfodder 'Stylo' or 'Tropical' lucerne inKelantan. Malay. agric. J. 42, 183-198.

WoNG, N.C. (1979). Micromorphology,mineralogy .and humification pro-perties in some sandy soils in theKuantan area, Malaysia. M. Sc. Thesis.State University of Ghent, Belgium.

WONG, C.C. (1980). Productivity andchemical composition of twentyimproved tropical grasses in the humidtropics. MARDI Res. Bull. 8,163-173.

WONG, C.C., GTPN, C.P. and ATIT, S.S.(1982). A Report on Pasture andFodder Introductions in MARDI.MARDI Rep. No.76,35 PP.

a A -