Determining Nutritive Value of Cereal Crop Residues and Lentil (iLens esculanta/i) Straw for Ruminants

摘要

The chemical composition and in situ dry matter (DM) and organic matter (OM) degradability of seven different cereal crop residues were evaluated in this study. They included the Sorghum stovers (SS) and its threshed head residues (STH), millet stovers (MS) and its threshed head residues (MTH), corn stover (CS), wheat (WS) and barley (BS) straws. A legume crop residue (lentil, Lens esculanta, straw;LS) was included for comparison with the cereal crop residues. The CS was high (P crude protein (CP) and acid detergent lignin (ADL) and the lowest (P < 0.05) in Neutral Detergent Fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF) when compared to the amounts in SS and MS. It was found out that LS had higher (P < 0.05) CP, ADL, ME and low (P < 0.05) NDF and ADF than the cereal crop residues. There were differences in digestible DM (DMD) at various incubation times both between and within the feed samples. The DM and OM a, c fraction were highest (P < 0.05) for LS when compared to all the cop residues evaluated. The BS and MS had the lowest effective degradability (ED) DM at 0.02 and 0.05 (P < 0.05) rates of passage, while the LS had the highest. The chemical composition and degradability of different crop residues found in Eritrea indicate the potential the residues have in supplementing grazing animals.