Determinación del contenido proteínico en materiales seleccionados de Cenchrus ciliaris L., Chloris gayana K. y Panicum coloratum L.

The objective was to evaluate the crude protein content in materials previously selected from the three pastures. Six apomictic cultivars and an introduced sexual race were evaluated in buffel grass; eight diploid clones and two tetraploids tolerants to salinity stress (600 and 800 mM CINa, respectively) were tested in grama rhodes and nine improved clones of closed and open structure plants regarding varietal phenotype coloratum, and six clones to makarikari were used in P. coloratum. In buffel grass, the clones differed in both cuttings for the leaves and the stems; the Nunbank and Americana cultivars showed the highest CP level. Among different ploidies of grama rhodes only significant differences were observed in the stems. There were significant differences among the diploid clones and in both cutting moments, in leaves as well as in stems. The tetraploid clones only differed between leaves and stems. In P. coloratum the variety types differed in the leaves for ND and the coloratum type presented the major value of CP. It is concluded that the three species studied showed a wide variability regarding CP content. This encourage the possibility to obtain improved germplasm for this character, adapted to productive limitations of the argentine semiarid Chaco. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]