ISSN 2375-1231
African Journal of Crop Science ISSN: 2375-1231 Vol. 3 (4), pp. 138-142, June, 2015. © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
In sacco degradation of Tephrosia candida and Leucaena leucocephala in mixtures with Panicum maximum using fistulated West African dwarf sheep
J.A. Odedire1*, O. J. Babayemi2 and T. O. Ososanya2
1Department of Animal Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile – Ife, Nigeria. 2Department of Animal Science, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
*Corresponding author. [email protected] or [email protected].
Accepted 23 May, 2013
Abstract
An experiment was conducted to compare the utilization of Tephrosia candida and Leucaena leucocephala in mixtures with Panicum maximum as feed for small ruminants, using the artificial bag technique of feed evaluation. Three West African dwarf (WAD) sheep with rumen cannula were used for the experiment. T. candida was formulated into diets with P. maximum as diets A, B and C while L. leucocephala was formulated into diets with P. maximum as diets D, E and F in the ratio 3:1, 1:1 and 1:3 respectively for both legumes. The degradation characteristics indicated L. leucocephala – based diets as being more (P < 0.05) degradable in the rumen than the T. candida – based diets, with diet D having the highest potential degradability (a+b) value.
Key words: Artificial bag technique, degradation characteristics, feed, small ruminants.