Effect of mixing less palatable grasses with Iple Iple leaves and their effect on chemical composition and digestibility

The study was conducted at the National Agricultural Research Centre, Islamabad during 2011 to investigate the impact of mixing low palatable grasses of Heteropogon contortus, Desmostachya bipinnata, Sorghum halepense and Chrysopogon aucheri with tree leaves of Leucaena leucocephala (Iple Iple) in the ratio of 75%:25%, 50%:50%, 25%:75%, along with sole species on their chemical composition. Samples were analyzed for proximate parameters. Digestibility of Heteropogon contortus and Iple Iple tree leaves mixed in various combinations was also studied in growing goats. There were significant differences in Dry Matter (DM) among different grasses. DM content of low palatable grasses ranging from 70-75 (% was generally high as compared to Iple Iple leaves (45-55%). The CP value of the treatments showed significant variation ranging from less than 10% in case of grasses to almost 30% in case of pure Iple Iple leaves. The mixtures had CP content corresponding to proportions of grasses and legume tree leaves. The CF values also varied significantly among the treatments. Grasses had in general higher CF content than legume leaves. The highest digestibility of DM (68.25%) in animals was recorded in treatment HC25% 11(75%), followed by 67.45% and 67.25% in treatments HC50% 11(50%) and HC75% 11(25%) but the differences were non-significant among the treatments. In general mixture had higher DMI ranging from 3.8 - 4.18 kg followed by pure Iple Iple leaves (3.75 kg). The significantly highest CPI of 1.05 kg was recorded for the treatment 11(100%), while the lowest CPI of 0.12 kg by HC100%, CFI ranged from 0.56 to 1.86 kg among the treatments. Mixtures had generally higher CFI than the sole grass or legume. The treatment HC75% + 11(25%) had CPI digestibility percentage of 68.33%, statistically apart from rest of the treatments. However, the lowest crude protein digestibility 41.11 % was recorded in treatment HC100%.