Forage Quality and Pectin Content Response to Soil pH, Ca, and Water Potential.

Forage quality is an important parameter in animal nutrition, and depends, partly, on soil fertility and moisture. Acidic soil pH and low soil moisture are known to decrease forage yield and quality. Much of the grassland in West Virginia is on hillsides which creates a gradient of available water along the toposequence. Our objective was to quantify the interactions between soil pH, calcium content above what would be required to correct soil pH and soil moisture on forage quality (Crude protein percentage, lignin percentage, pectin content, ADF and NDF) in a warm-season forage (sudan grass - red clover) mixture. Our hypothesis was that added Ca, above what is required to correct soil pH will improve forage yield and quality, especially pectin content. The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse as a completely randomized design with 3 treatments – soil pH, added Ca and water content, with three replications.