Evaluation of in situ degradability in cattle supplemented on four tree species

Objective. Evaluate the ruminal in situ degradability of four forage species: Flamboyant (Delonix regia), Indian Coral Tree (Erythrina glauca), Cratylia (Cratylia argentea) and Camel's Foot Tree (Bahuinia variegata) to determine their nutritional value. Materials and methods. Four rumen-fistulated bovine females distributed in a simple crossover design, grazing on Brachiaria decumbens were supplemented in the morning with three kg of dried leaves of the four mentioned species. The tree species were one year old, and pruned every three months. Nylon bags with 5 grams of tree MS in each bag including B. decumbens were used for the in situ testing, at different times (6, 12, 24, 48 and 72). The degradability of dry matter (DDM) , neutral detergent fiber (DNDF), acid detergent fiber (DADF), total nitrogen (DTN) and nitrogen attached to FDN (DNANDF) were evaluated. Ammonia nitrogen was measured at 0, 4, 8 and 12 and pH at 0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 hours was measured in the ruminal fluid. Results. The DMS was greater (p>0.05) for B. variegata (53.3%) and (56.1%) for D. regia compared to E. glauca and C. argentea. The B. decumbens DMS was higher (p>0.05) with 18.6% supplement of B. variegata compared to the other trees. The potential DFDN was lower (p>0.05) for E. glauca (7.6%) compared with cratylia. The DFDN of B. decumbens was similar for all forages. Conclusions. Some components of the tree species have association effects on the kinetics of the the B. decumbens DM and ADF degradation rates, being higher (p>0.05) when supplemented with B. variegata.