Abstract

ARIAS-GAMBOA, Luis Mauricio; LOPEZ-HERRERA, Michael; CASTILLO-UMANA, Miguel  and  ALPIZAR-NARANJO, Andrés. Fertilization type and regrowth age of Tithonia diversifolia on ruminal parameters. Agron. Mesoam [online]. 2023, vol.34, n.3, 53192. ISSN 2215-3608.  http://dx.doi.org/10.15517/am.2023.53192.

Introduction. Forages in the tropics have low digestibility, which is why alternative feed option such as Tithonia diversifolia (Hemsl.) are sought to improve the quality of the offered diet. Objective. To evaluate the effect of fertilizer type and the regrowth age of Tithonia diversifolia forage on rumimal parameters. Materials and methods. The study was conducted in 2020 at the Santa Lucía Experimental Farm of the Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica. A completely randomized split-plot design was used with fertilizer type as the main plot and regrowth age as subplot, with three replications per treatment. The fertilizer types were: vermicompost (L), chemical (Q), and control (C) without fertilizer use. The evaluated regrowth ages were 30, 50, and 70 days, resulting in a total of nine treatments. The variables assessed were: in situ dry matter degradability kinetics (DISMS), pH, ammoniacal nitrogen (NH3), in vitro gas, and methane production (CH4). An ANOVA was carried out for divided plots. Results. The highest DISMS was found in C30 (92.84 %) and the lowest in Q70 (64.21 %). The type of fertilization influenced NH3 contents, with the highest value observed in chemical fertilizer treatments (275.88 mg NH3/L rumen fluid). C70 produced the highest amount of gas (79.59 mL/g), whereas Q30 had the lowest average (28.38 mL/g). Methane production did not show significant differences, with values ranging from 3.42 to 8.67 mL CH4/g DM. Conclusion. Fertilization and regrowth age modified in situ and in vitro ruminal parameters. The obtained results suggest that this forage resource can be considered a supplement to grazing grasses in the tropics, where positive effects are generated on DM digestibility, gas, and CH4 production.

Keywords : forages; nitrogenous fertilizers; livestock; gas emissions; methane emission.

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