Effect of Dolomite on The Productivity and Quality of Africa and Hawaii Grass on Latosol Ciampea-Bogor

Abstract

Forage is one of the most important factor in the animal production. The restricted land availability in animal production resulted in the low productivity of forage especially during the long dry season. Latosol soil is acidic soil and has low nutrient content. Soil pH and nutrient availability of latosol can be improved by the application of limestone (dolomite). Liming can be used to increase the productivity of the acid soil, neutralize the soil acidity, increase the supply of plant nutrient and decrease the Al toxicity. This study aimed to determine and to compare the effect of the application of dolomite with some level respect to quality and productivity of africa and hawaii grass on latosol Ciampea. The design of the experiment was factorial Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with two factors and three replications. The first factor was africa and hawaii grass. The second factor was level of dolomite 0 ton/ha, 12,5 tons/ha and 25 tons/ha. The data were analyzed by using Analysis of Variance, if the data significant used test contrasts orthogonal. The results showed that the level of dolomite 0 ton/ha, 12.5 tons/ha and 25 tons/ha were effected vertical height of grass in the sixth week until the eleventh week after the observation. However, the interaction between the grass with dolomite no significant (P>0.05). The results showed that the level of dolomite 0 ton/ha, 12.5 tons/ha and 25 tons/ha were not effected by application of dolomite (P> 0.05) against the number of leaves, the weight of stems, roots, and leaves as well as chemical analysis (Crude Fiber, Crude protein, Calcium, and Magnesium). It is concluded that the application of dolomite do not significantly affect productivity and quality of africa and hawaii grass. However it is known that hawaii has a high vertical grass higher than the africa grass.

Rumput afrika dan rumput hawaii merupakan rumput tropis yang sering digunakan sebagai pakan ternak ruminansia. Produktivitas dan kualitas rumput dipengaruhi oleh lahan dan iklim. Latosol merupakan tanah bersifat masam dan memiliki kandungan unsur hara yang rendah. Produksi rumput pakan pada tanah masam dapat ditingkatkan dengan melakukan pengapuran. Pengapuran merupakan pemberian senyawa yang mengandung Ca atau Mg ke dalam tanah sehingga mampu mengurangi kemasaman tanah atau meningkatkan pH tanah. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui dan membandingkan pengaruh pemberian dolomit pada taraf yang berbeda terhadap produktivitas dan kualitas (serat kasar, protein kasar, Ca, dan Mg) rumput afrika dan rumput hawaii pada tanah latosol Ciampea.