Chemical composition and in situ degradability of Desmanthus spp. forage harvested at different maturity stages

Mwangi, Felista W., Charmley, Edward, Adegboye, Oyelola A., Gardiner, Christopher P., Malau-Aduli, Bunmi S., Kinobe, Robert T., and Malau-Aduli, Aduli E.O. (2022) Chemical composition and in situ degradability of Desmanthus spp. forage harvested at different maturity stages. Fermentation, 8 (8). 377.

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Abstract

This study evaluated the change in nutritive value and in situ degradability of Desmanthus spp. (desmanthus) cultivars JCU2; D. virgatus, JCU4; D. bicornutus and JCU7; D. leptophyllus harvested at varying maturity stages to test the hypothesis that the nutritive value and in situ degradability of desmanthus differ between cultivars and with maturity stage at harvest. In Experiment 1, desmanthus was harvested at 11, 38, 72 and 103 days of regrowth (maturity), separated into the leaf and stem portion, dried and analysed for dry matter (DM) and chemical composition. In Experiment 2, desmanthus was harvested 78, 122 and 168 days after planting (maturity). Samples were dried, and DM, crude protein (CP) and neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF) degradation were determined using the in situ technique with three fistulated Droughtmaster steers. The results showed an interaction between cultivar and maturity on the leaf to stem mass ratio, leaf CP, stem NDF and the leaf ADF (p ≤ 0.04). The leaf-to-stem mass ratio declined more steeply with maturity in JCU7 compared to JCU2 and JCU4 (p = 0.04), while there was a higher decline in leaf CP of JCU4 than JCU2 and JCU7 (p < 0.01). The total potentially degradable fraction of DM and CP did not differ between cultivars (p ≥ 0.30) but declined with maturity (p ≤ 0.04). However, the effective DM degradability at a high particle outflow rate was higher in JCU4 than in JCU7. Taken together, these results indicate that differences exist between cultivars, and higher livestock production may be achieved by utilising the different cultivars in a blend and at earlier maturity stages. Therefore, the hypothesis that nutritive value and in situ degradability of desmanthus differ between cultivars and with maturity stage at harvest was accepted.

Item ID: 75699
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 2311-5637
Keywords: legume pastures; tropical livestock; pasture quality; leaf to stem mass ratio
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Copyright Information: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Date Deposited: 11 Aug 2022 02:39
FoR Codes: 30 AGRICULTURAL, VETERINARY AND FOOD SCIENCES > 3003 Animal production > 300303 Animal nutrition @ 100%
SEO Codes: 10 ANIMAL PRODUCTION AND ANIMAL PRIMARY PRODUCTS > 1004 Livestock raising > 100401 Beef cattle @ 100%
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