No abstract

Forty growing goats (20 males and 20 females) were used in a 90-day growth and intake study to evaluate the potential of Albizia lebbeck (ABC) based concentrate as compared with Gliricidia sepium (GBC), Leucaena leucocephala (LBC), and Moringa oleifera (MBC) based concentrates with cotton seed cake (CSC) as a control. The animals were fed a basal diet of maize stover and supplemented daily with 30 g/kg W 0.75 of ABC, GBC, LBC, MBC, and CSC. They were compounded so as to formulate iso-protein diets. Treatment effects were significant (p < 0.05) for growth rates in that with the exception of GBC, goats on CSC exhibited significantly higher gains compared to counterparts in other treatments. The total DM intake was between 50.6 and 52.6 g/kg W 0.75 /day and there were no significant (p > 0.05) differences among treatments. There were significant differences (p < 0.05) among treatments for maize stover intake. CSC based treatment showed the highest intake with insignificant (p > 0.05) differences amongst the leaf meal based concentrates. It can be concluded that Albizia lebbeck had similar potential to the other leaf meal based supplements studied but had lower potential compared to a cotton seed cake based supplement, as protein sources for growing goats fed a poor quality basal diet.

Degradability characteristics of dry matter (DM), protein free DM (PFDM) and nitrogen (N) were estimated in maize stover, rice straw and their botanical fractions using the nylon bag technique. True intestinal digestibility of the intact feed protein (TID) was also estimated using the mobile bag technique. The results indicated that cereal straws and their botanical fractions have substantial variation in the extent and rate at which DM, PFDM and N were degraded in the rumen. The protein values of Total amino acid absorbed from the small intestine (AAT) , Protein balance in the rumen (PB) and TID ranged from 49 to 81 g kg-1 DM, in PBV from-89 to-61 g kg-1 DM and TID of 34 to 69 percent DM in both straws and their botanical fractions. The predicted dry matter intake (DMI) value for whole maize stover was slightly higher (5.2 kg DM d-1) than whole rice straw (4.9 kg DM d-1). High variations (4.5 to 6.1 kg DM d-1 for maize stover and 4.5 to 5.7 kg DM d-1 for rice straw) were observed within the two cereal straw botanical fractions. It was concluded that the two cereal straws are of very low feeding value and to increase their production potential improvement method strategies like chemical treatment and/or supplementation are inevitable.