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Livestock-Based Farming Systems, Renewable Resources and the Environment |
An experiment was carried out to evaluate digestibility by goats of foiage of Operculina turpethum with or without supplementation of Sesbania sesban. Four weaned crossbred goats (Bach Thao x local female), 12 – 13 kg and 4 months of age were used. The basal diet was Operculina turpethum foliage fed ad libitum. The design was a Latin Square with 4 treatments: (i) without Sesbania (ii) supplement of Sesbania at 0.5% of body weigh on dry matter basis, (iii) supplement of Sesbania at 1.0% of body weigh on dry matter basis and (iv) supplement of Sesbania at 1.5% of body weigh on dry matter basis.
Apparent digestibility of crude protein was high on all diets with a slight linear decline as the level of Sesbania was increased (Figure 2). DM intake and nitrogen retention showed curvilinear responses to level of Sesbania with the optimum at 1.0% of LW (as DM) (Figure1 and 3).
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| Figure 1. Effect of level of supplementation with Sesbania sesban on DM intake of goats fed a basal diet of foliage of Operculina turpethum | Figure 2. Effect of level of supplementation with Sesbania sesban on the apparent digestibility of crude protein in goats fed a basal diet of foliage of Operculina turpethum |
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| Figure 3. ffect of level of supplementation with Sesbania sesban on N retention in goats fed a basal diet of foliage of Operculina turpethum |