EVALUATION OF SUGARCANE TOPS OF Co CLONES FOR FODDER QUALITY TRAITS

• Published in: Journal of Sugarcane Research (online) 2020-03, Vol.1 (1)
• Main Authors: Bakshi Ram, S.K. Tomar, R. Karuppaiyan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2249-927X; 2582-4767

Twenty four sugarcane clones were evaluated for two years in one plant crop and one ratoon crop, to assess the magnitude of variability for sugarcane tops related traits at eighth, 10th and 12th month after planting/ratooning and to find out correlations among morphological and biochemical traits of sugarcane tops. High variability at phenotypic and genotypic levels was observed for top weight, top/cane ratio, fat content and crude fibre content; moderate variability for leaf length, leaf width, top length, crude protein content, ash content and silica content and low variability for dry matter content, neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF) fraction of fibre were observed. Most of the biochemical (fodder quality) traits did not exhibit significant correlations with morphological traits of sugarcane except the negative association between crude protein content and cane yield or CCS yield; ash content and cane yield or CCS yield. On the basis of biochemical compositions of SCT, the clone Co 05011 was rated as the best for dry matter content (33.03%), Co 0118 (7.27%) and CoJ 64 (6.85%) for crude protein content, Co 0237 (3.67%), Co 07023 (3.67%) and Co 0238 (3.62%) for crude fat content, Co 0424 (19.12%) and Co 0118 (21.39%) for low crude fibre content and CoS 8436 for low silica content ( 2.49%).