Abstract: Many studies have reported about sorghum-sudangrass hybrid, which is a new grass species for forage cultivation. However, the relation of yield and forage nutritive value between sorghum-sudangrass hybrid, sorghum and sudangrass is less clear, which effected the management of the hybrid of sorghum and sudangrass. Our objective was to conduct a field trial to evaluate the yield and forage nutritive value of sorghum, sudangrass and sorghum-sudangrass hybrid. The results showed that there were significant differences of yield and forage nutritive value between sorghum, sudangrass and sorghum-sudangrass hybrid. Compared with sorghum and sudangrass, fresh matter yield (FM) and dry matter yield (DM) were the highest in Sorghum-sudangrass hybrid Wancao2 and Jingkecao1. The increment of FM and DM was 83.8% and 121.9% respectively in Wancao2 and 98.6% and 139.9% respectively in Jingkecao1 compared with those of sudangrass. Crude protein (CP) content and ether extract (EE) content were the highest and nitrogen-free extract (NFC) content was the lowest in the hybrids (Table 2). The yields of CP, EE, NFC and gross energy (GE) were the highest in the hybrids while the medium in sorghum and the lowest in sudangrass (Fig.3 and Fig.4). The FM of stalks (sheathes and leaves) was higher than that of leaves while stalks and leaves played an equally important role in DM and GE for Sorghum-sudangrass hybrids and their parents.

Key words: Sorghum-sudangrass hybrid, Sorghum, Sudangrass, Yield, Forage nutritive value