Chemical composition and rumen degradation of diet combinations of cottonseed cake, dried brewer's grains and Lablab purpureus hay incubated in the rumen of fistulated N'dama steers in South-western Nigeria

Abstract

The chemical composition and dry matter (DM) and nitrogen (N) degradation characteristics of four diet combinations at four total digestible nutrients (TDN) levels of cottonseed cake (CSC), dried brewer's grains (DBG) and Lablab purpureus hay (LL) which were fed to ruminants in the humid zone of Ibadan, South-west Nigeria, were evaluated. The TDN levels used were 3.5, 4.5, 5.5 and 6.5 kg TDN. The CSC and DBG used are agro-industrial by-products which are used in feeding livestock while the LL is a leguminous plant which is not used much as human feed but is usually grown as forage legume for animal feeding. The completely randomized design with four treatments and three replicates was used. The experiment was carried out in Ibadan, South-western Nigeria during the wet season (June to July). The diets were high in crude protein contents so that they had high nutritional potential for ruminants feeding and productivity. The potential degradability (PD) of dry matter (DM) values ranged from 75.24 to 79.47 g/ 100g DM, while that for the nitrogen (N) degradability ranged between 88.36 and 94.30 g/100g N. The soluble fraction a value of DM degradation and the crude fibre (CF) content of the chemical composition of the diets were significantly correlated (r= 0.644; P= 0.007). The potential degradability (PD) values for both the DM and N degradabilities were not significantly (P>0.05) different among the four treatment diets combinations.
Keywords: Chemical composition, degradation, N'dama steers, cotton seed cake, dried brewer's grainsLablab purpureus