Proper livestock feeding is key to improving the livestock sector in sub-Saharan Africa. Limited availability of well-performing forage technologies matched with production environment and context is often a constraint to increase forage quality and quantity for livestock productivity. To contribute towards forage technologies for cold areas, we selected four promising small grain varieties and evaluated them in 2020-21. They included two (Conway, Glamis) oat varieties and two (Rihane, Kounouz) barley varieties. In two village sites in Mufindi District in the southern highlands of Tanzania, we established trials in a randomised complete block design replicated three times. While the cultivars produced similar dry matter yields (t/ha), they returned significantly different crude protein (CP%), Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF%) and in vitro organic matter digestibility. Digestibility was in the order Glamis > Conway > Kounouz > Rihane, while crude protein yield (t/ha) was in the order Glamis > Kounouz > Rihane > Conway. Based on dry matter and crude protein yields and digestibility, Glamis oat would be the most preferable in the study area and other similar ecologies.
@article{doi:10.17170/kobra-2024070910495,
author ={Mwendia, Solomon Waweru and Nzogela, Beatus and Mwilawa, Angello and Notenbaert, An},
title ={Having inadequate roughages in cold areas in Tanzania? Consider forage oat and barley},
keywords ={630 and Tansania and Futtermittel and Qualität and Trockenmasse and Hafer},
copyright ={http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/},
language ={en},
journal ={Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics (JARTS)},
year ={2024-09-27}
}