Having inadequate roughages in cold areas in Tanzania? Consider forage oat and barley

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.