Impact of integrated nitrogen management on the nutritional quality of fodder maize

Abstract

A two-year field experiment on integrated nitrogen management on fodder maize and its residual effects on succeeding fodder cowpea was conducted at Main Forage Research Station, Anand Agricultural University, Anand during rabi-summer season of 2021-22 and 2022-23 at Forage Research Farm. Experiment consists of twelve integrated nitrogen management treatments with three replications. Two-year experiments data results revealed that application of 125% RDN (100 kg N/ha) + Micronutrient enriched FYM 0.5 t/ha reported significantly higher dry matter intake (1.88 and 1.82%), dry matter digestibility (69.22 and 70.00%), total digestible nutrient (68.73 and 70.02%), relative feed value (100.49 and 98.66%) and relative feed quality (104.55 and 103.55%). While application of Micronutrient enriched FYM 0.5 t/ha fb Jeevamrut drenching 500 L/ha at 15,30 and 45 DAS reported significantly lower feed quality like dry matter intake (1.49 and 4.49%), dry matter digestibility (62.21 and 62.47%), total digestible nutrient (57.11 and 57.54%), relative feed value (71.97 and 72.09%) and relative feed quality (69.29 and 69.71%) respectively 2021-22 and 2022-23.