Abstract

Browsing ruminants have access to different biomass, depending on how high they can reach. Foliage consisting of leaves and green pods from Acacia senegal, Pterocarpus lucens and Guiera senegalensis, was collected according to height above ground accessible to either sheep (0.90 m), goats (1.65 m) or cattle (1.50 m). There was a significant variation in the chemical composition of the biomass between species. The crude protein (CP) content was 114, 157 and 2 ' 17 g/kg dry matter (DM) and the neutral detergent fiber (aNDF) content 604, 534 and 412 g/kg DM for G. senegalensis, P. lucens and A. senegal, respectively. There was no significant variation in chemical composition according to the height accessible by cattle, sheep or goats. The voluntary intake was studied using eight goats per diet. The six diets consisted of the three browse leaves and two pods (A. senegal and P lucens) and a control. The leaves were fed combined with hay of Schoenefeldia gracilis (maximum 30%) and the control was pure hay. Apparent digestibilities of the same diets, with the exception of G. senegalensis, were measured using five goats per diet. All browse fodders used in the feeding and digestibility trials were high in CP (105-170 g/kg DM) and lignin (164-234 g/kg DM except A. senegal leaves) and low in fiber (322-590 g/kg DM of NDF) compared to the hay (31 g/kg DM of CP and 755 g/kg DM of NDF). The highest intake was of the P. lucens diet (864 g) and the lowest of the G. senegalensis diet (397 g). The intake of pods from A. senegal was higher (1033 g) than from P lucens pods (691 g). The apparent digestibility of OM and CP in the browse leaves was 0.63 and 0.57 and 0.63 and 0.64 for A. senegal and R lucens, respectively, higher than for the hay, which showed higher digestibility of NDF. A. senegal pods had higher digestibillty for all nutrients than P lucens pods. Based on the high CP content and the intake and digestibility characteristics, P lucens leaves and A. senegal leaves and pods can be recommended as protein supplements to low quality diets. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Acacia senegal; Pterocarpus lucens; Guiera senegalensis; browse fodder; chemical composition; intake; digestibility

Published in

Animal Feed Science and Technology
2008, Volume: 144, number: 1-2, pages: 97-110
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

SLU Authors

• Ledin, Inger

  • Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Animal and Dairy Science
Veterinary Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2007.10.004

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/18252