Nutritive characteristics of pearl millet forage in four phenological stages

The present study was conducted in order to evaluate the nutritive value of pearl millet forage harvested at different maturity states. The study was made under watering conditions with ICMV-221 two purposes variety. Four samples were taken at each four maturity states: (LS) leaf 7th, (FL) flag leaf, (BS) boot stage, and (F) flowering. The samples were analyzed by NIRS (near infrared spectroscopy) to determine the nutrients content and results were subjected to analysis of variance into complete randomly model. Organic matter content increased with maturity (P<0.003), while crude protein content was higher (P<0.005) in LS. Non fiber carbohydrates did not show significant changes (P>0.05) with maturity. Neutral detergent fiber (NDF) content was similar (P>0.05) in the four maturity stages, but acid detergent fiber (ADF) content increased (P<0.008) from LS to F stage. Lignin and lignin linked to NDF increased (P<0.05) with age. Dry matter digestibility was reduced (P<0.0005) with age from 81.7 % in LS to 69.0 % in F stage. Energy contents tend to reduce with maturity of forage, but not significant differences were detected (P>0.05). Results indicated that age of pearl millet forage at harvest affected in a significant way almost all parameters of nutritive value. Younger forages showed the best nutritive characteristics.