Establishing the nutritive values of locally available fodder crop/crop residues for cattle/carabao [Philippines]

Based from proximate components, legumes had generally higher DM [dry matter] than grasses. All the five grass species had CP [crude protein] content below 11%. All the legumes exceeded 20%. At 50:50 grass:legume combinations, there was marked improvement in the percentages of CP and EE and a decrease in CF. Plant species which showed CF content under each classification had usually lower NFE values or vice versa. There is a wide range in the neutral detergent fiber (NDF) values within each forage classification. Except for napier, the average NDF values for grasses were generally higher than those of the legumes, grass stovers and grass:legume combinations. Legumes had much higher lignin content than either grasses and grass stovers. The combinations of grass and legume had reduced lignin of less than 10% except for a few combinations. Rice straw was highest in silica. Most forage crops are poor sources of phosphorus. Legumes has higher calcium (Ca) than grasses. The Ca content of most forage crops is usually enough to satisfy the requirement of animals. All forage samples were low in sodium. Requirements for trace minerals except for manganese and zinc seems to be satisfied. Significant differences (P.01) were observed in the digestion coefficient of CP, EE, CF, and NFE among forage crops. Grass:legume combinations showed the highest COD for all the proximate component suggesting a significant improvement over grass or legume alone. On over-all digestibility, carabao had higher digestibility for the proximate components than cattle although their differences was not significant (P.05). Coefficient of digestibility of GE values were higher by about 3 to 5% for grass:legume combinations compared to grass alone or legume alone. Moreover, energy value (DE and TDN) showed marked improvement for grass:legume combination. In vivo dry matter digestibility values were higher than in vitro dry matter digestibility