Abstract
An experiment was conducted to evaluate the dry matter yield and quality performance of Maralfalfa forage at six harvest intervals (HI; 40,50,60,70,80, 90d) at three dairy farms in northern Puerto Rico during the short day season. In the majority of the quality parameters under study, the HI of 40 and 50 days were significantly (P menor 0.05) superior to the other HI. Conversely, the dry matter yields from the above mentioned intervals were (P menor 0.05) inferior to those obtained with HI of 70, 80 and 90 days. The 50 and 60 day HI did not differ significantly (P > 0.05) in dry matter yield. The HI of 50 days yielded forage of a quality not very inferior to that of the 40 days (ex., % crude protein 19.1 vs. 16.0), but its dry matter yield was nearly three times higher (P menor 0.05) (3,000 vs. 8,607 kg/ha). The simple regression equations of in vitro digestibility of dry matter and of neutral detergent fiber vs. HI showed a digestibility loss of 5.0 and 6.0 percentage points for each 10 days increment in harvest interval, as the values decreased from 84% and 74% at HI 40 d, to 60% and 45% at HI 90 d, respectively.