Ecophysiology of Andropogon grass subjected to different cutting frequencies and intensities

• Autor(a) principal: Lima,Juliana R. L.
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Rodrigues,Rosane C., Sousa,Giovanne O. C., Costa,Clésio dos S., Parente,Henrique N., Santos,Francisco N. de S.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Engenharia Agrícola e Ambiental (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1415-43662020000900610
• topic: Andropogon gayanus; cutting height; morphogenic characteristics; forage production

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to evaluate the morphogenic and structural characteristics, and demographic patterns of Andropogon gayanus subjected to different cutting frequencies and intensities. A completely randomized design was adopted in a 3 × 2 factorial arrangement, corresponding to three cutting heights (50, 70, and 90 cm), and two cutting intensities (50 and 70%) with four repetitions, totaling 24 plots of 7.50 × 6.25 m. For morphogenesis, there was no interaction effect (P ≤ 0.05) of treatments on stem elongation rate, leaf appearance rate, and phyllochron rate. The highest rate of leaf elongation was observed at a height of 90 cm and cut intensity of 50%, with 1.69 and 0.84 cm tiller-1 d-1 of leaf elongation at heights of 50 and 70 cm, respectively. For forage production, there was no interaction (p > 0.05) between cutting intensity and cutting height. When the pasture was managed to a cutting height of 90 cm, there was a greater increase in dry leaf mass, stalk dry mass, dead forage dry mass, and total dry forage mass, which was 50.89% and 53.29% higher than pasture heights of 50 and 70 cm, respectively. There was no interaction between factors on demographic characteristics (p > 0.05). A cutting height of 70 cm with a cutting intensity of 50% is recommended when handling this grass.