The cultivation, production and utilization of Leucaena leucocephala for beef production
1988
Garcia, C.W. | Neckles, F.A. (Sugarcane Feeds Centre, Longdenville (Trinidad and Tobago)) | Archibald, K.A.E.
Experiments were conducted to determine the usefulness of leucaena, the first of such being the determination of the chemical composition of the forage. The crude protein averaged 24 % which decreased with increasing age at harvest or regrowth interval, the percent dry matter and neutral detergent fibre content tended to rise. Ash and estimated digestible energy, tended to decrease with increasing age at first harvest. Another experiment conducted was digestible studies. In vitro organic matter digestibility and dry matter digestibility tests were done. In vivo methods of digestion used the Nylon Bag technique to determine the rumen degradable protein value of leucaena forage compared with that of soybean meal. The results suggest that after 24 hours of incubation in the rumen the digestibility in the rumen of the leucaena and soybean meal was 41.32 and 71.79 % respectively. The results of the Nitrogen Balance study indicated that the dry matter and organic matter digestibility coefficient of the 70 % sugarcane based diets supplemented with forage protein and soybean meal was inversely related to the acid detergent fibre content of the dry matter content. The third experiment was cattle growth feeding studies. Leucaena was substituted for soybean meal at different levels of protein content. It was found that the average daily gain decreased as the leucaena crude protein content increased
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