Composition and digestibility of some botswana browse species utilized by tswana goats

Aganga, A.A.; Tshwenyane, S.O.; Malebye, S.M.

Composition and digestibility of some botswana browse species utilized by tswana goats

2003

Aganga, A.A. | Tshwenyane, S.O. | Malebye, S.M.

In-adequate feed availability is the main constraint to goat production in Botswana. In the country, shrubs and trees of the natural vegetation are utilized as browse, lopped or cut fodder for domestic herbivores. Indigenous browse plants providing feed for ruminants include Combretum apiculatum, Euclea undulata, Peltophorum africanum and Terminalia serecia. In a metabolism trial conducted at Botswana College of Agriculture farm Gaborone, twenty-four goats were used to measure the dry matter digestibility (DMD) of four commonly consumed browse species namely: Combretum apiculatum, Euclea undulata, Peltophorum africanum and Terminalia serecia. The four browse plants (leaves and twigs) were collected from the ranges in Sebele-Gaborone hardveld region of Botswana. The browse plants (twigs and leaves) were analyzed for proximate composition, acid detergent fibre (ADF), nutrient detergent fibre (NDF), and also evaluated for in vivo dry matter digestibility (DMD) using male Tswana goats, with four animals per treatment, fed on diets consisting of 60 percent buffalo grass hay (Buchloe dactyloides) and 40 percent browse with a control group of 60 percent buffalo grass and 40 percent lucerne. Grass hay was used as a basal diet and four animals were used to determine the nutritive values of the grass to be used as basal values of the experiment. percentage crude protein (percent CP) obtained were 9.94, 6.23, 6.90, 5.72 and 15.20 for Combretum apiculatum, Euclea undulata, Peltophorum africanum, Terminalia serecia and Medicago sativa. The DMD coefficients were 0.60, 0.41, 0.37, 0.51 and 0.55 for C. apiculatum, E.undulata, T.serecia and M.sativa respectively.

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