Renny Fatmyah Utamy et al. A Comparison of Growth Characteristics, Dry Matter Yield, and Forage Quality 214 Doi: 10.21059/buletinpeternak.v44i4.55000 A Comparison of Growth Characteristics, Dry Matter Yield, and Forage Quality Between Mixed Cropping and Pure Stand Systems (Monoculture Systems) Renny Fatmyah Utamy*, Herry Sonjaya, and Kusumandari Indah Prahesti Department of Animal Producion, Faculty of Animal Science, Universitas Hasanuddin, Makassar, 90425, Indonesia Article history Submitted: 1 July 2020 Accepted: 6 October 2020 * Corresponding author: Telp. +62 8124 2583 456 Email: rennyfatmyahutamy198@gmail.com ABSTRACT Smallholders beef cattle are facing many problems, such as the unsustainable supply, limited quantity, and poor quality of forage, which all are crucial to increase the population and productivity of their beef cattle. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of monoculture and mixed cropping system between dwarf napiergrass with siratro and centro on growth characteristics, fresh and dry matter (DM) yield, and forage quality. The study was carried out for 4 months. There were 3 experiment treatments, namely P0 = dwarf napiergrass (Pennisetum purpureum cv Mott) planted on monoculture system; P1 = dwarf napiergrass planted in mixed cropping system with siratro (Macroptilium atropurpureum cv Siratro); and P2 = dwarf napiergrass planted in mixed cropping system with centro (Centrocema pubescent). All treatments were replicated 3 times. All plants on each treatment were planted on 3×3 m plots, with 1 m of distance between the plots. Data were collected four times after transplanting, i.e. August 20 th , September 17 th ; October 28 th ; and December 16 th of 2017, respectively. The results of study indicated that neither plant height nor tiller number in all treatments and measurement periods were significantly affected (p>0.05), except in month-3 (plant height) and month-4 (tiller number). Although treatments did not alter fresh and DM yield (p>0.05), the DM yield from mixed cropping system tended to be higher. Hence, it can be concluded that growth characteristic, productivity, and forage quality in mixed cropping system were better than in monoculture system. Keywords: Centro, Dwarf napiergrass, Monoculture, Polyculture, Siratro Introduction Generally, beef cattle production in Indonesia are conducted by smallholder farmers who hold 2-3 heads of beef cattle (Direktorat Jenderal Peternakan, 2015). The number of people working in livestock production sector in South Sulawesi accounts for 3.4% of total national number (Statistik Peternakan dan Kesehatan Hewan, 2018). Although the number is considered low, the existence of people working in livestock industry are crucial to support the achievement of sovereignty in providing animal protein. Syahdar et al. (2016) previously reported the difficulty in increasing the scale of Bali cattle production due to limited land resources, inadequate forage supply, and limited time. Farmers opt to let their beef cattle to roam paddy field area where natural grasses grow. The fact that farmers have limited knowledge regarding forage management, which combined with poor access to technology, cause them to have no alternative option in providing forage for their cattle. These problems lead to poor animal productivity, which eventually compromises their income. Forage management can be seen as one of means to increase animal productivity. One of strategies in forage management is providing high quality forage as energy and crude fiber source for livestock. Forage divided into 2 main categories, i.e. grass and legume, which all are essential to supply nutrient for livestock. Livestock productivity is heavily relied on both quality and quantity of feed, which will be utilized for production and reproduction purposes. The nutrient requirement is not only supplied from grass that has high biomass production, but also from legume. Compared to legume (0.3–0.6 ton), grass has higher biomass production (1–2 ton). However, legume contains higher protein (15–25%) than grass (5–15%) (Stur and Horne, 2001). Dwarf napiergrass (Pennisetum purpureum cv. Mott) is a tropical and perennial grass, yet also can flourish in the southern part of Kyushu (Ishii et al., 2005a; Utamy et al., 2011), either in cut-and- carry system (Utamy et al., 2011) or grazing system (Mukhtar et al., 2014; Ishii et al., 2005b). Dwarf napiergrass has characteristics of densed leaf structure, high in biomass production and quality (Tudsri and Ishii, 2007), as well as Buletin Peternakan 44 (4): 214-220, November 2020 Bulletin of Animal Science ISSN-0126-4400/E-ISSN-2407-876X Accredited: 36a/E/KPT/2016 http://buletinpeternakan.fapet.ugm.ac.id/