A Selected Stenotaphrum secundatum as Superior Shade Tolerant Forage Resource

Abstract

The obstacle in planting and developing forage plants is limited land. One solution to anticipate this is to utilize land in plantations by introducing forage shade-tolerant among the main crops. The area of oil palm plantations in Indonesia reaches 14,677,560 ha potentially used in the integration system. This article outlines the superiority of Stenotaphrum secundatum from the selection results so that the reader gets comprehensive information about this grass, both in terms of production, nutritional quality and digestibility. Stenotaphrum secundatum selection’s variety grass is a forage shade tolerant that had derived by positive mass selection method which had had been tried it’s adaptability at two different elevation in North Sumatra. This grass is very suitable to be integrated in plantation land. The average fresh yield of S. secundatum at 55 and 75% shading level reached 2,386 and 2,001 g/m2/harvest, respectively. The digestibility of Steno grass selection’s result on growing Boerka goat shows a fairly good value, which ranges from 60.7% to 72.8%. Palatability of S. secundatum grass in goats is very good with consumption reaching 3.6% of body weight. S. secundatum grass, besides being tolerant of shade, is also resistant to pests, as long as it is maintained with good management. The crossing of polyploid Steno grass with diploid has produced drought tolerant varieties. This grass also has advantages in terms of dry matter production, nutrient content and crude protein production compared to other grass species and can be planted in wider plantation areas with 55-75% shade.