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Relationships of Date of Cutting, Stage of Maturity, and Digestibility of Orchardgrass^{1, 2,}

Department of Dairy Science

J. R. Harris

Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Western Washington Experiment Station, Puyallup

ABSTRACT

That forages in general decline in digestibility with advancing stage of maturity has been known for many years. Reid et al. (4) found the decline in dry matter digestibility of first-cutting forage to be related to date of cutting. They reported that the relationship between time of cutting in days elapsing after April 30 (X) until July 12 and the percentage of digestible dry matter (Y) can be predicted by the equation: Y = 85.0 – 0.48X.

Minson et al. (3) studied the digestibility of several grass species at different stages of maturity with sheep. They found that the percentage of digestible organic matter of first growths remained almost constant until the ears started to protrude from the leaf sheaths, then fell rapidly at approximately 0.5% per day. Cocksfoot was always less digestible than ryegrass at similar stages of growth.

¹ This study was supported in part by funds from the Dairy Cattle Research Branch under Cooperative Agreement 12-14-100-769 (5a).

² Scientific Paper No. 2133 Washington Agricultural Experiment Station, Pullman. Project No. 1333.