EFFECT OF MIXING LOW PALATABLE GRASS OF HETEROPOGON CONTORTUS WITH IPIL IPIL LEAVES ON DIGESTIBILITY IN GOATS
Maimoona Bashir*, Imtiaz Ahmad Qamar*, Muhammad Fateh Ullah Khan* and Raheel Babar*
ABSTRACT
The study was conducted at the National Agricultural Research Centre, Islamabad, Pakistan during 2012 to find out the effect of mixing low palatable grasses of Heteropogon contortus (HC), with tree leaves of Leucaena leucocephala (Ipil ipil, II) in the ratio of 75:25, 50:50, 25:75, along with sole species on their digestibility in small ruminants. Goats fed II , HC II , HC II , HC II and HC had similar 100% 25% 75% 50% 50% 75% 25% 100% dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP) and crude fibre (CF) consumption among all the treatments. The digestibility percentage of dry matter intake (DMI) varied among the treatments ranging from 68.25% to 41.66%. Mixtures of low palatable grass and Ipil ipil were in general more digestible with more than 65% dry matter digestibility. The lowest digestibility of dry matter (41.66%) was observed in HC 100%. A similar trend was noted for CP digestibility. However, reverse trend was observed in digestibility of CF where highest digestibility was recorded in HC and lowest in II . It 100% 100% can be concluded that grass and ipil ipil leaf mixture are better regarding forage quality and nutrient digestibility and can be recommended as animal feed.
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