Introducing viewpoints of mechanics into basic growth analysis - (III) applying growth force and leaf-light complex to production and digestion analyses of forages

The present study was designed to give new equations by applying growth force and leaf-light complex to production and digestion analyses of forages. The results obtained were as follows. The traditional equation for forage AGR (absolute growth rate) given by the product of NAR (net assimilation rate) and LAI (leaf area index) was modified as follows: (1) AGR was replaced by growth force that was given by the product of weight and growth acceleration, (2) LAI was replaced by MLA (mean leaf area weighted with relative light intensity) suggesting a kind of leaf-light complex. Inserting growth force and MLA into the traditional description of AGR led to a new equation, where growth process of forages was analyzed more deeply. The application of growth force to indigestible materials in forages gave a new equation that analyzed the indigestibility increase with forage growth more deeply compared with the former equation. It was suggested that growth force and leaf-light complex were useful tools in the production and digestion analyses of forages.