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Responses of intake, digestibility and nitrogen utilisation in goats fed low‐quality roughages supplemented with tree foliages
Author(s) -
Patra Amlan K
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.3610
Subject(s) - dry matter , zoology , nutrient , neutral detergent fiber , biology , chemistry , ecology
BACKGROUND: A meta‐analysis of data containing 127 different dietary treatments with 593 goats from 30 published studies was performed to explain the effects of foliage supplementation to low‐quality roughages on intake, digestibility and N utilisation in goats. RESULTS: Basal dry matter (DM) intake decreased linearly with increasing foliage level (FL) in diets and foliage crude protein (CP) intake, whereas total DM intake increased linearly with increasing FL and CP intake from foliages and quadratically with increasing concentration of neutral detergent fibre (NDF) in foliages. The digestibility of DM and CP increased linearly with increasing FL and CP concentration in basal roughages and foliage CP intake. The greater concentration of NDF in foliages and roughages decreased CP digestibility linearly. Intakes of digestible DM and CP increased quadratically with increasing FL, with plateau levels of 36.4 and 5.52 g kg −1 (body weight) 0.75 in response to 490 and 740 g kg −1 FL respectively. Faecal N, urinary N and N retention increased linearly with increasing FL and foliage CP intake. CONCLUSION: Responses of goats fed basal roughages supplemented with foliages are influenced by the quality and quantity of foliages and quality of roughages. Up to 490 g kg −1 FL can be incorporated in diets for better feed utilisation and animal performance, beyond which nutrient utilisation may be adversely affected. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry