Digestibility and chemical composition of fractions of lucerne during spring and summer

Abstract

SUMMARYBulk harvests of primary growth were made at intervals during the spring and summer of 2 consecutive years from an ungrazed area of lucerne (Medicago sativa) and the digestibility by sheep was measured. At the same times, shoots of known length representative of the sward were collected, divided into 7·5 cm lengths, and separated into leaf and stem for the determination of ash, nitrogen, cellulose, and in vitro organic matter digestibility.Digestibility and leaf: stem ratio of the bulk harvests decreased and dry matter increased as the season advanced. Leaf composition changed little, but stem increased in lignin and decreased in ash and in vitro digestibility. In vitro digestibility and leaf: stem ratio were highly correlated with sheep digestibility.Chemical composition of shoots of known heights was similar to that of the bulk harvests. Leaf weights/shoot tended to increase linearly with height of shoot, whereas stem increased nearly as the square of the height. Dry matter of leaf and stem were inversely related to leaf:stem ratio. Stem digestibility decreased with leaf:stem ratio and with increase in shoot height.Chemical components of shoot fractions were associated with each other and were largely dependent on the distance from the top of the shoot at which they had been taken, irrespective of shoot height or time of year. Bottom stems had lower ash, nitrogen and digestibility but higher cellulose, dry weight and dry matter than top stems, whose composition approached that of leaves. Leaf fractions showed little consistent trend with position on the shoot.Some of the difficulties in studying changes in plant composition under field conditions are discussed.