Evaluation of sorghum and millet green fodder for their nutritive value at two stages of growth

The period feeding experiments were conducted to evaluate the nutritive value of green fodder of sorghum (Rio variety) and pearl millet (ICMV-221) at two stages of growth using growing crossbred heifers. The dry matter, organic matter, acid detergent fiber cellulose, acid detergent lignin and gross energy contents were lower in pearl millet than Rio, while the crude protein, hemi cellulose and total ash contents were higher in pearl millet than Rio at both stages of harvest. The neutral detergent fiber content was higher in pearl millet than Rio at milk stage but the value become reversible at dough stage. The dry matter digestibility of Rio at milk stage (57.26%) was significantly (p0.01) higher than that at dough stage (49.93%). In case of pearl millet the dry matter digestibility did not differ significantly between the two stages. The over all DM digestibility did not differ significantly between Rio (53.60%) and pearl millet (56.84%). However, the digestibility of DM in stage I (57.76%) was significantly (p0.01) higher than stage II (52.68%). The organic matter digestibility of Rio at milk stage (60.24%) was significantly (p0.01) higher than that at dough stage (53.25%). In case of pearl millet the organic matter digestibility at milk stage (61.14%) was significantly (p0.01) higher than at dough stage (56.74%) indicating that the organic matter digestibility at stage I was significantly higher than stage II. However, the overall value did not differ significantly between the two fodders. The digestibility coefficient of crude protein for Rio at milk stage (54.58%) was significantly (p0.01) higher than that at dough stage (45.22%). The digestibility of CP in pearl millet at milk stage (66.18%) was significantly (p0.01) higher than that at dough stage (55.14%), which indicated clearly that the digestibility coefficient of CP for fodder harvested at stage I was significantly higher than that harvested at stage II. Further more the over all CP digestibility of Pearl millet (60.67%) was significantly (p0.01) higher than Rio (49.90%).