Four crop residues (wheat straw, rye straw, corn stover and cotton plants) and hybrid millet X napier grass packaged into large round bales were stored in five tests. The influence of storage method and rainfall on bale mass and average moisture were determined by weighing bales monthly during long term outside storage.

SUMMARY Coastal bermudagrass and Tifton 44 ber- mudagrass (a new hybrid submitted for release in January, 1978) were compared as pasture and as pellets made from harvested dehydrated forage. Steers grazing Tifton 44 gained .80 kg/ day compared with .67 kg/day for steers graz- ing Coastal bermudagrass (P<.05). When the two bermudagrass varieties were harvested and fed as dehydrated pellets, animals fed Tifton 44 gained about 19% faster (P<.05) than animals fed Coastal and required 15.9% less (P<.05) feed per unit of gain. In a replicated digestion trial, the digestibilities of dry matter, crude fiber and nitrogen-free extract were greater (P<.05) for Tifton 44. The digestibility of the ether extract fraction was 4.7% greater (P<.05) for Coastal bermudagrass. Nitrogen retention values were greater (P<.05) for steers fed Tif- ton 44 bermudagrass.

ABSTRACT THE aquatic weeds, water hya-cinth [Eichhornia crassipes] and hydrilla [Hydrilla verticillata], were chopped, mechanically dewatered, de-hydrated and pelleted to determine whether they could be processed ef-fectively and efficiently in existing processing systems and components. Pressing removed 60 to 80 percent of the water and 18 to 38 percent of the dry matter. The pressed products were difficult to dry rapidly and pellet.

Comparable plots of Pensacola bahiagrass, Coastal bermudagrass and Coastcross-1 bermudagrass were harvested and pelleted at 4-or 8-week intervals during the growing season and used to determine apparent digestibility, voluntary intake and body weight gains when steers were fed these various forages. Pellets from grasses harvested at 4-week intervals were more digestible. They contained more crude protein and ether extract but were lower in nitrogen-free extract, crude fiber, cellulose, acid detergent fiber, acid detergent lignin and cell wall content. The dry matter digestibility of Pensacola bahiagrass and Coastcross-1 bermudagrass was greater (P<.01) than for Coastal bermudagrass. The crude protein content of the two bermudagrasses was more digestible (P<.05) than the protein in Pensacola bahiagrass. Apparent digestibilities for all fibrous constituents were greater (P<.05) for Pensacola bahiagrass than for Coastcross-1 bermudagrass and greater (P<.05) for Coastcross-1 bermudagrass than for Coastal bermudagrass. Steers fed pelleted Coastcross-1 bermudagrass gained faster (P<.05) than steers fed Pensacola bahiagrass and faster (P<.01) than steers fed Coastal bermudagrass. Four-week-old Coastcross-1 bermudagrass and Pensacola bahiagrass were most efficiently converted (P<.05) to animal gain; whereas, 8-week-old Coastal bermudagrass was least efficiently utilized (P<.05).