Three of the most promising cultivars in terms of DM yields
(Kakamega 1, Kakamega 3 and Machakos hairless) were
compared in terms of nutritive quality to cultivar Bana that is
popularly grown by farmers. The cultivars were established and
bulked at KARI Kitale. After establishment, they were cut back in
sequential blocks to enable uniformity of the fodder during the
feeding experiment. Eight dairy cows selected from a dairy herd at
KARI Kitale were used in a 4 × 4 latin square change over design
replicated twice. The adjustment and collection periods lasted for
14 and 7 days, respectively. The cows were fed with the Napier
grass ad libitum. Feed intake and milk yield were measured for
each cow. Leaf: stem ratio of the feeds were determined on
representative samples taken from the bulked fodders. The data
was analyzed using the GLM of SAS (SAS, 2001).