hree 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 Ki
tale. 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)