Forage Quality and Production of Phragmites Communis As a Native Grass According to Growth Stages

This study was carried out to determine the forage quality, production, and regrowth of Phragmites communis as a native grass according to growth stages.Experiment 1 was conducted in Ansan from May 2009 to April 2010 (7 stages), and experiment 2 was conducted in Cheonan from May to November 2011 (10 stages).In experiment 1, forage quality decreased rapidly with advance of growth from May.When harvested on late May, July, September and April of the following year, the contents of crude protein were 7.7%, 4.6%, 3.7%, and 2.2%, respectively.Relative feed value (RFV) were 80.2, 65.1, 61.8 and 52.8, and lignin contents were 7.1%, 9.9%, 12.0%, and 13.2%, respectively.In experiment 2, significantly higher forage yields were observed when harvested from late June to mid July.On the other hand, forage quality decreased with delayed harvest as was in experiment 1. Good regrowth of Phragmites communis was observed when harvested earlier than in August.When harvested on late May, June, July, August, September, October and November, the dry matter (DM) yields were 7,329 kg/ha, 12,527 kg, 9,593 kg, 8,279 kg, 7,649 kg, 5,822 kg and 5,540 kg, and in vitro digestible DM (IVDDM) yields were 3,924 kg/ha, 5, 264 kg, 4,273 kg, 3,322 kg, 3,352 kg, 2,195 kg and 1,887 kg, respectively.Forage quality grades of Phragmites communis were 4th grade in May, 5th grade from June to Sept., and 6th grade in Oct., Nov., or in Apr. of the following year.However, all regrown Phragmites communis ranked the 4th in quality.In conclusion, we recommend that Phragmites communis should be harvested from late June to mid July (no later than the end of July) to obtain good forage quality with digestible nutrient contents greater than rice straw.Regrowth of Phragmites communis was poor, and more than 70% of annual forage yields were out of the first harvest.Therefore, we recommend only one harvesting per year for good regrowth and stable production of Phragmites communis.