Initial Growth and Herbage Quality Trends for Leaves and Stems of Two Forage Sorghums

Forage sorghums (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) are commonly grown on the southern Great Plains of the USA as pasture, hay or emergency feed. Grazing and harvesting schedules generally span a wide range of plant maturities, Therefore, we measured at weekly intervals (from 32 to 96 days after planting) the herbage yield and quality of leaves and stems for Trudan 8 (hybrid sudangrass) and Funk-G 1990 (FG- 1990) (hybrid forage sorghum), Replicated plantings were grown under irrigation at Lubbock, Texas in 1990 and 1991. Trudan 8 generally had a lower propo1tion of leaves, leaf yield/plant, digestibility and crude protein levels for stems than FG-1990. Because of greater leaf proportions and maintenance of 50-190 g/kg higher stem digestibility over the initial growth cycle, FG-1990 had a broader time-window for quality grazing than Trudan 8,