FORAGE POTENTIALITY ASSESSMENT OF EGYPTIAN INDIGENOUS-NATIVE LEGUMES

Three field experiments were designed and implemented to evaluate fresh and dry forage yield, vegetative growth behaviour, and quality determinations of three Bonavista bean types(White, Black and Brown seed-coat) planted with three seeding rates (10, 20 and 30 kg/fed), whereas, fodder cowpea types(Creamy, Brown and Dotted seed- coat) planted with three seeding rates (15, 30 and 45 kg/fed). Meanwhile, for complementary study, investigations were devoted to compare the production and feeding value of each of the six forage legumes in their monoculture as well as their potentialities if mixed with pearl millet as super selected fodder grass in 50:50 % ratio. The studied parameters were as follows: Fresh forage yield (ton/fed), dry forage yield (ton/fed), plant height (cm), stem diameter (cm), leaf area/plant (cm^2), leaf/stem ratio (% on fresh weight basis), light intensity (lux), number of tillers /m^2, crude protein (C.P%), crude fiber (C.F%), ash content, ether extract (E.E%), nitrogen free extract (NFE%), total digestible nutrients (TDN%) and digestible protein (DP %).