Bulo et al., 1994. Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci., 7 (3): 325-333

In field experiments at Gowa, South Sulawesi, Indonesia conducted from Dec. 1985 to Oct. 1986, legume species were grown in monocultures and the yield, N content and rumen bag digestibility using goats were measured. After establishment of Desmodium heterophyllum cv. Johnstone, D. triflorum from Gowa, South Sulawesi, Arachis sp. from Maiwa, South Sulawesi, Clitoria ternatea CPI 50973, Macroptilium atropurpureum cv. Siratro, Neonotonia wightii cv. Tinaroo, Centrosema pubescens CPI 58575 and Centrosema plumieri CPI 58568, all plants were cut to a uniform height of 5 cm, and subsequent cuts were made on regrowth after 14, 28, 42 and 56 d (cycle 1). Cycle 2 commenced towards the end of the wet season and continued for 157 d into the dry season. The highest yielding legumes were C. ternatea in the wet season and Arachis sp. in the dry season. The mean rumen bag DM digestibility (RBDMD) of legumes of 67.6% for leaf material (averaged over all cycles and ages) was 7.6% higher than for stem material. The RBDMD of Arachis was significantly higher than all other species. The RBDMD of all legumes declined with age. Calculation of yield of digestible DM (yield * RBDMD) showed that Arachis sp. was the best legume. It is suggested that the combination of plant quality with yield measures is a valuable adjunct to routine agronomic survey procedures in plant evaluation programs. It is concluded that the Arachis sp. appears to offer considerable promise and should be more widely evaluated.