Effect of leucaena forage and silage substitution in concentrates on digestibility, nitrogen utilization and milk yield in dairy cows

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to determine the effect of feeding leucaena forage and silage substitution in concentrate on the performances of dairy cows. Nine cross-bred Holstein Friesian cows (410±12kg) in the 12th week of lactation were randomly allocated to one of three treatment groups with three replicates/treatments in a completely randomized design. The three treatments were control diet without substitution of leucaena forage and silage (DLFS0), diet with substitution of leucaena forage 10% (DLF10) and diet with substitution of leucaena silage 10% (DLS10). Cows were fed treatments for 60 days. Although nutrient intakes were not significantly different (p>0.05) each other, digestibility of DLFS0 was significantly higher (p<0.05) than others. Conversely, nitrogen utilization and average milk yield of cows offered DLFS0 were significantly lower (p<0.05) than those of cows fed on DLF10 and DLS10. The highest feed cost (p<0.05) per kg of milk was found in DLFS0 and the lowest cost was observed in DLF10. Therefore, although the leucana forage and silage could be substitute up to 10% of concentrates without adverse effects on the performances of dairy cows, the substitution of leucaena forage gave the better performances than that of leucaena silage.

In Vitro Fermentation of Grass Based Diet Supplemented with Two Different Tree Legume Forages in Ruminant

“…Thus, the concentrates have been supplemented to roughage diets to obtain the highest performances of animals. Groundnut cake, sesame cake, cotton seed cake, broken rice, rice bran and chickpea mill are used as concentrate sources for ruminants in Myanmar MyoKhaing et al, 2016). Supplementation of concentrates to roughage based diet enhances the animal performances, however the feed cost are high because of expensiveness of concentrates.…”

“…Norton (1994) also reported that the potential roles of tree forages in ruminant nutrition are palatable, high quality protein content, high digestibility, as source of by-pass protein, vitamin, and minerals, and can be utilized for the partial replacement of commercial concentrates to give less cost of feeding. Moreover, gliricidia and leucaena leaves could be used as nitrogen sources without causing detrimental effects in ruminants (Lwin Naing Oo, 2002;MyoKhaing et al, 2016). However, the supplementation of high quality legume forage to exotic grass on feed cost and animal performances are still remaining to investigate.…”