Abstract

Abstract The use of weeds growing in cashew plantation as cattle feed is limited by their unstable availability and low nutrient composition without proper cropping management. This study aimed to examine the potential of land between cashew rows to provide cattle feed under different maize and peanut crop rotations. The experiment was designed using Randomized Complete Block design, consisting of four treatments of rotational cropping patterns (R1: maize-maize-maize, R2: maize-peanut-maize, R3: peanut-maize-peanut, R4: peanut-peanut-peanut). The results indicated that different types of crop rotation showed different biomass yield and quality for use as cattle feed. In terms of biomass yield of Poaceae, R2 yielded the highest, but R4 produced the highest biomass of both Cyperaceae and broadleaf weeds. In terms of protein, fat, carbohydrate, and crude fibre contents, R4 was the best, but the total digestible nutrients was highest in R3, resulting the highest R3 capacity to feed cattle (5.58 CU/ha/year). These indicated that intensively cultivating the land between cashew plant rows can support higher cattle production in addition to higher cashew plant yield compared with leaving it uncultivated, which could increase weed competition. In the long-term, R3 crop rotation can be expected to improve sustainability and profitability of the cashew plantation.

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