EVALUATION OF THE LIMING ON THE QUANTITATIVE, QUALITATIVE AND NUTRITIONAL PARAMETERS OF THE TANZÂNIA-1 GRASS

Abstract

The soils of cerrado are acid and chemically poor, and the liming can increase the availability of most of the soil nutrients and mainly those supplied by the fertilizers through the soil fertilization, when reducing the surface soil acidity of the labor layer. In this experiment, three levels of liming were tested (0,3 and 6 t ha^-1 of dolomite lime) in Dark Red Latosol. The grass production didn’t increase by the lime application, however the largest concentrations of K, Ca, Fe and Mn were observed in plant tissue developed in the limed areas. Detergent Neutral Fiber and Zn presented decreasing tendency while the Cu and P tended to increase with the increment of the liming. The plant height, the number of buds and the productions of dry matter and green mass decreased significantly in response to lime application. In terms of bromatologic aspect, the quality of the forage was improved with the correction of the soil; the largest amounts of gross protein were observed in plants developed in the areas where 3 t ha^-1 were applied.

KEY-WORDS: Forage; liming; savannal soil.