Nutritive Values of Forages Available Around the Eastern University Premises

Abstract

A study was conducted to find out the nutrient content of available forages around the premises of Eastern University Sri Lanka. The forages used for this analysis were fodder grasses, pasture grasses, pasture legumes, leguminous tree fodder, non-leguminous tree fodder and crop residues. The collected forage samples were subjected to proximate analysis to find out the nutrient content namelyCrudeProtein, Crude Fibre, Ether Extract,Ash and NitrogenFree Extract(NFE) and theVan Soest analysis of fibre components such as Neutral Detergent Fibre (NDF), Acid Detergent Fibre (ADF) and Acid Detergent Lignin (ADL). The available fodder grasses (Penesetum purpureum, CO3 and Panicum maximum), pasture grass (Bracharia brizantha), past ure legumes (Centrosema pubescens and Stylosanthes guianensis), and fodder legumes (Leucaena leucocephala, Gliricidia sepium and Erithrina indica) were used for this study. Non-leguminous tree fodders (Mangifera indica, Psidium guajava, Artocarpus tetraphyllus and Ficus benghalensis) and certain crop residues derived from Oryza sativa, Manihot esculetum, Glycine max, Zea mays, Vigna unguiculata and Ricinus communis were also used for this analysis. The analysis revealed that the non-leguminous tree fodder has the highest mean dry matter content (46.8%) and ADL content (16.8%) than other forages. The highest mean value of ash content (26.7%), Ether extract (4.9%) and Crude protein content (18.9%) were found in the leguminous tree fodder compared to others. The mean value of NDF was high (73.4 %) in pasture grasses whereas the ADF was found high (42.9%) in fodder grasses. The samples were deficient in ash, crude protein, NDF and ADF. Crude Fat content was very low in almost all the forages.