INTAKE, DIGESTIBILITY, AND NITROGEN BALANCE OF SHEEP FED BAMBARA GROUNDNUT HAULM AS SUPPLEMENT TO A MAIZE STOVER BASAL DIET

ABSTRACT

The study was conducted to evaluate the agronomic and nutritional characteristics of Bambara groundnut haulms fed to rams as supplement to a maize stover basal diet. Four cultivars of Bambara groundnut were selected from forty Bambara cultivars obtained from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) based on their agronomic and nutritional characteristics for metabolism studies using four Djanllonke rams with an average weight of 15.0 ±0.5 kg. Four selected cultivars of Bambara groundnut haulm, TVSU (138), TVSU (879), TVSU (690), and TVSU (1446) were evaluated using the in vitro gas production technique. The animals were assigned randomly in a 4x4 Latin square design to one of the four test diets namely, T1 (Maize stover only, the basal diet), T2 (Maize stover + 150 g Bambara groundnut haulm), T3 (Maize stover + 300 g Bambara groundnut haulm) and T4 (Maize stover + 450 g Bambara groundnut haulm). The grain yield estimates of all the cultivars ranged from 0.21-4.9t/ha with cultivars TVSU1446 (0.54 t/ha), TVSU138 (0.73 t/ha), TVSU690 (2.3 t/ha) with TVSU879 recording the highest yield of (3.3 t/ha). The haulms yield also ranged from 2-24 haulms per stand at harvest. Whereas TVSU879 recorded the highest (15 haulms per stand), both TVSU690 and TVSU1446 recorded 9 haulms per stand and TVSU138 had the lowest haulms yield of 3 per stand. The chemical analysis indicated a dry matter range of 90.24 (TVSU138) to 90.80% (TVSU1446), crude protein ranged from 14.32 (TVSU690) to 16.15% (TVSU138), neutral detergent fibre range 47.34% (TVSU1446) to 68.45% (TVSU879). While that of acid detergent fibre ranged from 33.46% (TVSU690) to 43.65% (TVSU138). Percentage ash contents recorded were 8 for TVSU690, 9 for TVSU1446, 9.5 for (TVSU879) and 11 for (TVSU138). Dry matter intake of the basal diets increased as the supplement level increased (P < 0.05). Cumulative gas production at 48 and 72hr was highest for TVSU (879). The highest fermentative gas production was recorded by TVSU690 (34.61) followed by, TVSU1446 (30.90), TVSU879 (23.84) and TVSU138 (21.47). There were significant differences (P < 0.0001) among the four cultivars in terms of the gas production parameters. The rates of gas production ranged from 0.04 to 0.07 h^-1. Cultivar TVSU879 (0.07 h^-1) was significantly (P < 0.0001) highest compared with the other cultivars which recorded the same rate of gas production of 0.04 h^-1. The total feed intake did not show any significant (P > 0.05) difference at all levels of supplementation. Digestibility co-efficient was significantly lower (P < 0.05) for T1 which had no Bambara groundnut haulm supplementation compared to the other treatment groups supplemented with BGH which were also statistically (P > 0.05) similar. Generally, faecal, urine and nitrogen balance values amongst the treatment groups did not differ (P > 0.05) significantly. From the current study, it can be concluded that, Bambara groundnut haulm seems to be underutilized though could be used to supplement poor quality roughages to increase productivity of ruminant livestock in tropical regions and possibly replace the conventional feed supplements. Furthermore, the four cultivars of the Bambara groundnut haulm under study revealed that they could be valuable alternative animal feed sources in ruminant feeding.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 OBJECTIVE(S)

1.1.1 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 CROP RESIDUES

2.1.1 Techniques of improving nutritive value of crop residues

2.1.2 Microbial activity on crop residues

2.2 FORAGE LEGUMES

2.2.1 Underutilised forage legumes

2.2.2 Nutritive values of forage legumes

2.3 BAMBARA GROUNDNUT

2.3.1 Agronomic characteristics of Bambara

2.3.2 Nutritional characteristics of the haulm of legumes

2.3.3 Factors of plants that affect intake

2.3.4 Degradation of forages

2.4 IN VITRO GAS PRODUCTION TECHNIQUE AS A TOOL TO EVALUATE FEEDSTUFFS

2.5 SUMMARY OF LITERATURE REVIEW

CHAPTER THREE

MATERIALS AND METHODS

3.1 DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPERIMENTAL SITES

3.2. AGRONOMY EXPERIMENTS

3.2.2 Land preparation and field layout

3.3.3 Cultural practices

3.4 INTAKE AND DIGESTION TRIAL

3.4.2 Dietary treatments

3.5 CHEMICAL ANALYSES

3.5.2 Fibre Analysis

3.5.3 In vitro gas production method

3.6 ANIMALS AND EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

3.6.1 Intake, digestion trials and measurement

3.7 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 OVERVIEW

4.2 NUTRIENT ANALYSIS OF THE HAULM

4.3 IN VITRO GAS PRODUCTION

4.4 EFFECT OF BAMBARA GROUNDNUT HAULM SUPPLEMENTS ON THE INTAKE OF MAIZE STOVER

4.5 DRY MATTER INTAKE, APPARENT NITROGEN DIGESTIBILITY CO-EFFICIENT AND NITROGEN BALANCE

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 CONCLUSIONS

5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS

REFERENCES

APPENDIXES

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Ruminant livestock production, according to Nurfeta (2010) is hindered by inadequacy and low quality of feed. High level of productivity cannot be obtained since the tropical grasses which are usually given to these livestock are low or deficient in protein (Kosgey and Okeyo, 2007). It has however been reported that, when these tropical grasses are supplemented with concentrates, their intake and digestibility are improved (Nurfeta, 2010). However, such strategies are rarely adopted by smallholder livestock farmers because these farmers consider concentrates to be scarce and expensive to use. Consequently, there is limited prospect for using cereal grains and by-products as livestock feed by smallholder farmers. In order to mitigate the problems associated with the lack of protein supplement, there is a need to look for alternative protein sources that farmers can produce at their own farm without incurring additional cost.

Protein can often be a limiting nutrient for the growth of young livestock and for milk production in ruminant production systems (Minson, 1990). Legume forages have a large potential to overcome this limitation as they have higher protein concentrations than that of grasses or other forages such as maize (Goodchild, 1990). Ruminant production generally does require forages with crude protein of 100 to 170 g kg−1 DM and legume forages tend to be either at the upper end of, or above this range (Minson, 1990; Groff and Wu, 2005; Dewhurst et al., 2009). For instance, across a wide range of species and regions, the crude protein of forage legumes was found to be approximately 170 g kg−1 DM compared to 115 g kg−1DM for grasses (Minson, 1990).

Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranean) is an annual herbaceous, intermediate plant with creeping stems belonging to the fabaceae family. Amarteifio and Moholo (1998) reported that it is an underutilised crop and could make a well-balanced feed with a caloric value equivalent to that of a high quality cereal grain. The grain of Bambara groundnut contains 11.4 % protein, 53.1 carbohydrate, 6.1 % fat, 6.1 % fibre, 4.4 % ash, 0.097 % calcium, 0.007 % iron, 1.2 % potassium and 0.003 % sodium (Onwubiko et al., 2011).

The haulm of Bambara groundnut is one of the several leguminous plant residues which could be used as a feed supplement in sheep diets to reduce cost of production and improve digestion and nitrogen balance. However, its use as a supplement has not been extensively researched on. It is therefore crucial to determine how they can contribute to small ruminants’ productivity through its use as nitrogenous supplement to cereal crop residues.

In vitro estimations of feed degradation are imperative tools for ruminant nutritionists. These methods measure either substrate loss or fermentation products (Blümmel et al., 1997). It has been suggested that the gas production technique is more dependable than the nylon bag method for determining nutritive value of feeds containing anti-nutritive factors (Khazaal and ∅rskor, 1993). Therefore, the study sought to evaluate the nutritive and gas production characteristics of the haulm of Bambara groundnut as well as the intake, digestion and nitrogen balance of sheep fed Bambara groundnut as supplement to a maize stover basal diet.

1.1 OBJECTIVE(S)

1.1.1    SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

The specific objectives were to:

Evaluate the nutritive value of Bambara groundnut using the in vitro gas technique.

Assess intake, digestion and nitrogen balance of sheep fed Bambara groundnut as supplement to a maize stover basal diet.

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