| Sumario: | An experiment was conducted to study the effect of four harvesting intervals(2,4,6 and 8 weeks) and two levels of fertilizer (0 and 500 kg N ha-1 per annum) on DM yield, nutrient composition and in vitro dry matter digestibility of four irrigated cultivated grasses (Chloris gayana, Panicum maximum, Panicum coloratum, Cenchrus ciliaris) at Melka Werer Research Center in the Middle Awash Valley. An increase in dry matter yield was observed with harvesting interval, 8 weeks harvesting interval showed high dry matter yield compared to 2 weeks. Higher values (P<0.05) of neutral detergent fiber (71.93) were observed in 8-weeks harvesting interval while the lowest was from 2-week interval (59.46). Higher levels of crude protein (15.1 percent) and IVDMD (65.0 percent) occurred at 2-week clipping intervals than the 6 and 8 weeks clipping. NDF increased significantly with age. The study demonstrated to use the clipping interval of 4 to 6 week in irrigated pastures at Melka Werer since better quality and a relatively higher DM yield is obtained at least for one season is found to be uneconomical.
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