Traditionally, swamp buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis) have been kept by small-holders in Southeast Asia, as multi-purpose animal, to providing draught power and meat consumption. There were 148 millions of buffalo in the would. There are 99.9 % in the developing countries. The presence of swamp buffalo in Thailand are 1.6 millions heads and more than 80 % are in the Northeast. The role of buffalo was very important domestic animal in Thailand, while Thai farmers have deep relationship with the buffalo in the life, such as land preparation, fertilizer, and transportation in rice production and some plant crops. Moreover, buffalo were slaughtered at the end of their lives for meat production (Chantalakana, 2001). Nowadays, the buffalo population has been decreasing very fast. There are several reasons for the reduction in the number of Thai swamp buffalo and they are as following; the reduction of rice producing areas, the replacement of buffalo by small tractors, the castration of good male buffalo, the industry invasion into the rural are. It has previously been reported that cattle and buffalo are kept under similar conditions, buffalo utilized feed more efficiently with the digestibility of feeds being typically 2-3 percentage units higher (Wanapat, 2001). The abilities of buffaloes to digest fiber efficiently may be partly due to the microorganisms in their rumen. The microbes in the buffalo rumen convert feed into energy more efficiently than do those of cattle (as measured by the rate of production of volatile fatty acids in the rumen) (David, 1998).
The potential of cassva-legumes inter-cropping as food-feed system for dairy farmers has been reviewed (Polthanee et al 2001). An advantage commonly claimed for intercropping systems is that they offer greater yield stability than sole cropping (Baker, 1980; Rao and Willey, 1980; Rao and Morgado, 1984). Legume crops were intercropped with cassava such as cowpea, penut and mungbean (Polthanee et al 2001), flemingia (Dung et al 2005) Stylosanthes guianensis and Phaseolus calcaratus (Wanapat et al 2005). Cassava-legume intercropping systems usually increase the land use efficiency and economic return over solely cassava (Polthanee et al 2001) or long-term harvesting of cassava foliage showed benefits in saving costs of production which would make the system more sustainable for smallholder farmers (Wanapat et al 2005). However, the use of high quality foliages as a protein sources in concentrate for ruminant feeds have not yet been substantiated. It was therefore the objective of this experiment to investigate the use of different local feed resources as protein roughage sources in concentrate on rumen ecology, microbial protein synthesis and feed digestibility.
To determine effect of intercropping on cassava hay yield and chemical compositions.
To study effects of protein sources from local feed resources on rumen microorganism, microbial protein synthesis and feed digestibility in swamp buffaloes.
Supplementation of tropical protein roughage resources on rumen ecology, fermentation, feed digestibility, microbial protein synthesis and nitrogen balance.
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Wanapat M 2001 Role of cassava hay as animal feed in the tropics. Workshop on Current Research and Development on Use of Cassava as Animal Feed, July, 2001. Eds: T.R. Preston, R.B. Ogle and M. Wanapat), held in Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand.
http://www.mekarn.org/procKK/wana3.htm
Wanapat M 2005 Enhancing ruminant productivity in the tropics by rumen manipulating with local feed resources. In: Proceedings of the International Conference Integrating Livestock-Crop Systems to Meet The Challenges of Globalisation. November 14-18, 2005. Held at Sofitel Raja Orchid, Khon Kaen University, Thailand. Vol. 1, pp: 285-296.