dc.description.abstract | Manure crops are encouraged with subsidy by government to grow in the fallow land in Taiwan. The objective of this study was to determine the forage yield, chemical contents and silage quality of manure crops planted at different locations to evaluate the potential of manure crops used for forage. Plant height and dry yield of sesbania (Sesbania roxburghii) are 163-187 cm and 5.0-6.3 Mg ha-1, and content of crude protein (CP) is between 16.1-17.2 %. The Flieg’s point of sesbania silage was different with location. Silage of sesbania planted in Tainan and Hwalien had the points lower than 40, which belonged to “poor” quality. Sesbania planted in Pingtung and Taitung could make the silages with “moderate” quality. Soybean (Glycine max) cv. Tainan No. 4 and 7 both had the higher plant height and dry yield in spring than in fall for all locations. In spring, dry yields of TN4 and TN7 were 5.4-9.3 Mg ha-1 and 8.1-13.0 Mg ha-1, respectively, while were 4.2-7.0 Mg ha-1 and 4.8-8.1 Mg ha-1, respectively, in fall. The content of CP, acid detergent fiber (ADF) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) of TN4 and TN7 were 13.8-16.4%, 33.9-37.7%, 54.4-59.0% and 14.4-16.6%, 34.2-39.5%, 51.2-57.2%, respectively. Silage of soybean planted in spring had the Flieg’s points belonged to “poor” quality, but soybean planted in fall could make the silages with “moderate” quality. Plant height and dry yield of berseem clover (Trifolium alexandrinum) at flowering period was 59 cm and 4.4 Mg ha-1, and its CP content was upper than 18%. Silage of berseem clover without any ensiling treatment has Flieg’s points lower than 20, which quality was “poor”. Wilting, adding with corn meal or mixing with napiergrass chops could raise the silage quality significantly as the pH reduced to 4.2-4.5 and the Flieg’s points lifted to 42.2-50.7. Rape (Brassica napus) had very low dry yield (2.2 Mg ha-1) at flowering period since its low dry matter percent. The CP content of rape was about 10% and content of ADF and NDF of rape was also lower than leguminous manure crops comparatively. Similarly to the berseem clover, Silage of berseem clover without any ensiling treatment has Flieg’s points lower than 20. Wilting and other ensiling treatments could raise the silage quality significantly to the “moderate” level. | en |