| dc.description.abstract | A study was designed to evaluate ten dual purpose sorghum varieties
(NGUUGU, MACIA, BTX623, IESV91131DL, IESV92089DL,
IESV92165DL, IESV99006 DL, IESV99026DL, IESV99095DL and
SDSL90162-2) for nutritional performance with view to recommend the best
suited for animal feed in arid and semi-arid areas. The trial was conducted at
KARl Kiboko, Machang'a and Kambi ya Mawe. The categorization into dual
purpose was based mostly on biomass yield, grain yield and overall agronomic
expression. At the age of 14 weeks, destructive sampling was conducted to
obtain samples for chemical composition evaluation. The samples were
separated into panicles, leaves, stems and whole plant. They were analyzed for
DM, CP, NDF, ADF, ADL and Hemicellulose. DM content of the ten sorghum
varieties ranged from 91.2 to 92.57%, while CP was in the range of 5.13 -
6.61%. The NDF was highest (P:5 0.05) in Nguugu (73.79%) and lowest in
IESV99006 DL (58.52%). The ADF content followed the same pattern with
Nguugu showing the highest (P:5 0.05) value (34.23%) and IESV99006 DL
with the lowest value (23.94%). The hemicellulose and ADL contents were
similar with values of33.85 -39.56% and 4.55 - 5.8%, respectively. Plant parts,
the leaves had higher (P:50.05) DM content (92.34%) than panicles (91.71 %)
and stems (91.28%). The panicle showed the highest (P:5 0.05) CP content
(7.07%) while stem had lowest value (3.92%). The NDF values obtained were
highest (P:5 0.05) for stems (70.68%) and lowest in panicles (60.25%). The
ADF, Hemicellulose and ADL showed higher (P:50.05) values in leaves and
stems and lower values in panicles. A combination of ability to produce
relatively higher dry matter digestibility, crude protein and low fibre
constituents, in addition to biomass yield leads to ranking variety
IESV99006DL and IESV92165DL as top for dual purpose production. | en_US |
