Improving edible biomass production of Tithonia diversifolia (Wild Sunflower) and effect of supplementation on foliage intake and growth rate of goats

             Nguyen Van Sao, Nguyen Thi Mui and Dinh Van Binh

                              Goat and Rabbit Research Center, Sontay, Hanoi, Vietnam
                                         saothangnam_1@yahoo.com

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to study: (i)  the effect of plant  density (row widths of 35, 55 and  75 cm between rows) of Tithonia and fertilizer level (10, 20 and 30 tonnes cattle manure/ha); and (ii)  supplementing the fresh Tithonia foliage with other forages as feed for growing goats. 

The row width of 55 cm gave the highest yield of 210 tonnes fresh biomass/ha/year. Tithonia supplemented with foliage (1% of LW as DM) from jackfruit supported higher growth rate of g oats (77 g/d) than supplements of banana leaf, Caliandra foliage, Guinea grass or no supplement (62 to 67 g/d).

Introduction

Tithonia grows wild in the highlands in Vietnam.  An experiment in 2010 (Sao et al 2010) showed that when Tithonia was planted as fodder plant in acid soil at Bavi, Hatay with 10 tonnes manure/ha/year supplied, edible biomass yield/cutting was around 25 tonnes/ha and with 6-8 cuttings/year an annual yield of 170 tonnes/ha/year of edible biomass was obtained. 

Manure level and plant density are factors that directly affect biomass production of forages. It was therefore proposed that an increase in plant density in combination with a suitable amount of manure would increase biomass yield of Tithonia.

Feeding Tithonia foliage with guinea grass without concentrate supported a live weight gain in growing goats of 62 g/day with 50% of the crude protein contributed by the Tithonia (Sao et al 2010). However, DM intake and N retention in goats was increased by feeding the Tithonia foliage in combination with other feed ingredients supplying bypass protein and rumen fermentable carbohydrate (Pathoummalangsy and Preston 2008). A study was therefore made of supplementing Tithonia with other forages as the feed for growing goats.

Materials and methods

Location

The experiments were carried out at the Goat and Rabbit Research Center, Sontay and at the Tan Linh commune, Ba Vi district, Hanoi, Vietnam, longitude E 105◦25 and latitude N 21◦06. The altitude is about 220 m above sea level. The climate in this area is tropical monsoon, with a wet season between April and November and a dry season from December to March. Average annual rainfall is 1850 mm. The two experiments were conducted during January to December, 2008.

Methodology

Experiment 1: Effect of different plant densities and manure levels on foliage production of Tithonia diversifolia on slope land

The experiment was carried out according to a Split-Plot Design with three different row spacings of 35, 55 and 75cm (main factor), three fertilizer levels of 10, 20 and 30 tonnes/ha/year of cattle manure (sub-factor) with three replications per treatment as in the diagram below:

Land area for each plot was 10*10 m² and total 2700 m² were used for the experiment. Tithonia planting material was taken from stem cuttings from plants in GRRC and planted at distances between plants in the row of 15 cm. The Tithonia foliage was harvested for the first time at 90 days after planting, and then at cutting intervals of 54 days. The total edible biomass yield was calculated. The samples of Tithonia foliage were analyzed for DM and CP content by AOAC (1990) methods. The heights of plants at each harvest were recorded.

Experiment 2: Effect of feeding Tithonia diversifolia as sole feed and combinative diets on feed intake and live weight gain of growing goats:

Twenty five Saanen cross breed goats around 6 months of age, of similar weight were used. Before starting the experiment, they were treated against parasites with injections of Ivermectin solution (1 ml per 4 kg BW) and vaccinate against pasteurellosis, enterotoxaemia, foot and mouth disease and goat pox.

The treatments used were:

Control: Tithonia foliage used as sole feed + Concentrate (1% of BW)
TD-GG: Tithonia foliage + Guinea grass (1% of BW as DM) + Concentrate (1% of BW as DM)
TD-JF: Tithonia foliage + Jack fruit (1% of BW as DM) + Concentrate  (1% of BW as DM)
TD-BAN: Tithonia foliage + Banana leaf (1% of BW as DM) + Concentrate (1% of BW as DM)
TD-CAL: Tithonia foliage + Caliandra (1% of BW as DM) + Concentrate (1% of BW as DM)

Tithonia was fed ad libitum for in all treatments. Foliages were divided into 3 meals per day (6:30; 11:30 and 16:30 daily). The foliages were hung on the wall of the pen, while Guinea grass was put in the trough. Water was given freely. The experiment lasted for 84 days.

Samples of feed offered and refused were taken weekly for analysis of DM, then pooled monthly for further analysis of CP, neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and ash. Dry matter contents were analysed according to the standard methods of AOAC (1990). Feed offered and refused was recorded daily. The animals were weighed in the morning before feeding at the start and end of the experiments and at two week intervals. Growth rate, feed intake and feed conversion ratio were calculated.

Statistical analysis

The data were analyzed by ANOVA using the General Linear Model (GLM) software of Minitab (2000). 

Results and Discussion

Effect of density and fertilizer level on yield of Tithonia

The different row spacing and manure level affected the height, and yield of edible biomass, DM and CP (Table 1 and Figure 1). The higher heights and biomass yields of Tithonia were found with row spacing of 55 and 75 cm and manure levels of 20 and 30 tonnes/ha/year.

Feed composition, intake and live weight gain of goats

The results in Table 2 indicated that the CP content in Tithonia diversifolia was high (23.9%), but DM content was quite low (14.6%).

In all cases the goats preferred to eat the supplementary forage rather than the Tithonia (Figure 2).  Providing Jackfruit foliage as a supplementary forage increased the growth rate but there were no advantages from giving the other forages (Figure 3). However, in all cases the goats received a supplement of concentrates and although the ingredient composition of this "commercial" feed was not known it is almost certain that it would contain maize and some oilseed protein both of which would compensate for the negative effect of the high solubility of the protein in Tithonia leaves, as was demonstrated by Pathoummalangsy and Preston (2008).

Figure 2. Effect o supplementation with other forages on the intake of Tithonia

Figure 3. Growth curves of goats fed Tithonia foliage and concentrates, with other supplementary forages or none

 

Conclusions and recommendations

• Planting Tithonia at a row spacing of 55cm and providing cattle manure fertilizer at a level of 20 tonnes/ha/year appear to optimum interventions to support high yield and high content of crude protein.

• Combining Tithonia foliage with Jackfruit foliage had positive effects on growth rate of goats

References

Pathoummalangsy K and Preston T R 2008 Effects of supplementation with rumen fermentable carbohydrate and sources of 'bypass' protein on feed intake, digestibility and N retention in growing goats fed a basal diet of foliage of Tithonia diversifolia. Livestock Research for Rural Development. Volume 20, supplement. http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd20/supplement/kham20076.htm

Sao N V, Mui N T and Binh Đ V 2010 Biomass production of Tithonia diversifolia (Wild Sunflower), soil improvement on sloping land and use as high protein foliage for feeding goats. Livestock Research for Rural Development.Volume 22, Article #151. http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd22/8/sao22151.htm

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