Energy supply to livestock from tropical rangeland during the dry season

Nine key forage species (grasses and legumes), together with two types of crop residues, usually fed by farmers to their livestock, were collected from a rainfed area in western Sudan during the dry season (May-April). The grasses investigated were Leptadena pyrotechnia, Cenchrus setigrus, Arista pallida, Eragrotis tremula, Schoenefeldia gracilis, Chloris vergata and Cenchrus biflorus. The crop residues investigated were the grasses, sorghum straw (Sorghum bichlor) and millet straw (Pennisetum typhodium) and the legumes Stylosanthes flavicans and Cajanus cajana. Estimates of organic matter (OM) degradability were done using the nylon bag technique, which was fitted into the model Y = a + b (1 - e(-ct)), in which the asymptote (a + b) represented the total potential degradability. Organic cell wall constituents and hence both metabolizable energy and total digestible energy or nutrients (TDN) were determined. S. flavicans showed the best organic matter degradability, and sorghum straw was better degraded than millet straw. The rest of the grasses showed poor OM degradability. Acid detergent insoluble nitrogen was inversely related to TDN, the latter falling within a narrow range for the different forages. Fermentable metabolizable energy differed only slightly, while the legume S. flavicans had the highest effective rumen digestible protein. Undegraded proteins were high for the straws and the grasses L. pyrotechnia and C. setigerus. Metabolizable protein and microbial protein were highest in the sorghum straw, C. setigerus and S. flavicans.