Scientific Disclosure: Did you know that some grasses tolerate shade?

For the formation of agroecosystems there is usually deforestation to establish the crops that are planned on the farm, in the specific case of the livestock sector for the establishment of pastures the same happens because it is feared that such fodder crops do not have an efficient growth and development. Deforestation can cause imbalances in the agricultural system such as loss of functional biodiversity that help many natural processes that favor the soil and therefore the growth of crops.

The presence of trees is important in the areas intended for grazing because according to García (1983), the temperature of the atmosphere can cause caloric stress in the animals that are grazing, if the animals do not have shade there is a probability of decreasing the production of the animals because they begin to look for shady places and decrease the consumption of food because of the stress.

For this reason, it is important that producers know the characteristics of the species that they plan to plant in the paddocks, when referring to the characteristics, climatic factors are included, since there are species of grasses that can become tolerant to the shade, which would favor livestock production, because there would be no limitation in terms of the shade of the trees and a suitable environment for the animals would be provided.

For all the aforementioned reasons, in this publication we wish to make a scientific dissemination, related to a research carried out by Viáfara, Clavero and Araujo-Febres in 1997 in an area of tropical dry forest with an approximate temperature of 28°C and in the rainy season to observe the behavior of Guinea Megathyrsus maximus grass under shady conditions of saman plants which are trees that can be commonly observed on foraging surfaces of tropical regions.

For the test they established three treatments, whose manipulated variable was the shade conditions where they located a space with 100% shade, another with 50% shade and the last one without any shade, in each mentioned area they delimited a space of 20 x 30 meters, from where the samples were taken, the management of the pastures was carried out as it was normally done in the production unit, making homogenization cuts (cutting the entire area at the same height) every 35 days with which the grazing of the animals was imitated. The dependent variables that were measured were the yield of dry matter, chemical composition and height, with the evaluation of these variables it can be observed whether or not the shade influences the yield and the quality of this species of grass.

As soon as the results obtained, it can be evidenced that there was no statistically significant difference in terms of height values in centimeters, the guinea grass under 100% shade reaching a height of 60 cm, he who was under 50% shade 58.31% and he who was directly in sunlight 56.23%. Regarding the yield of dry matter and quality, although no significant differences were observed between the treatments, the best values were reflected in the grasses that were directly in the sun.

Dear readers, the research carried out by these authors, allows us to show that there are grasses that can tolerate shade and that do not significantly influence their growth and quality. When observing the results, we can infer that in terms of its height, the shade possibly favored guinea grass because they were in a rainy or dry season, with plants that were directly in the sun having greater stress, in terms of dry matter yield it was lower in plants that were under shade, possibly because of what the authors themselves mention, that the decrease in dry matter is due to a greater succulence of the plant under shade.

With this research we can identify the Megathyrsus maximus grass as a species that can maintain its growth and quality in shady conditions and directly in the sun in grassland ecosystems, information that is of interest to livestock lovers and producers who have this species in their production unit. The variables evaluated by the researchers are influential when we want to determine if a forage plant is suitable for the nutrition of cattle and, in addition, if it provides the adequate yield to sustain a certain number of animal units.

Thank you for reading our article, until a next installment where we will be disseminating more information of an academic nature.