This experiment was carried out to assess botanical composition. DMY and chemical composition of Fogera upland natural pastureland under different application rates of N fertilizers and harvesting stages of natural pasture at small holder farmers’ condition. The experiment was conducted using 3x4 factorial experiment arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications and the treatment consisted three stages of harvesting (60, 90 and 120 days) and four levels of N fertilizer application (0, 23, 46 and 69 kg N/ha) on the natural pasture land.
The botanical composition of the natural pastureland that has been identified at the experimental site included thirteen grasses, seven annual legumes and seven other herbaceous species belonging to different families. The influence of stages of harvesting was significant (P<0.05) but application of N fertilizers was not significant on total DMY of the pasture. Natural pasture harvested at 120 days of harvesting and at a fertilizer application of 69 kg/ha results the highest DMY (9.97 t/ha) while the lowest level was (5.38 t/ha) from unfertilized plots at 120 days of harvesting. The effect of stage of harvesting and fertilizer level on DMY of legume components was highly significant (P<0.001) but for the grass components stage of harvesting had non significant effect, where as fertilizer had a highly significant effect (P<0.001). The relative proportion of legumes in the pastureland reached the highest at 90 days of harvesting at all levels of fertilizer application. The proportion of legumes varied from the highest mean of 56.18% to the lowest of 37.66% at 90 and 120 days of harvesting, respectively while that of grasses ranged from 58.09% to 40.24% at 120 days and 90 days of harvesting, respectively.
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Mekelle university, Ethiopia, southern Tigray