FEED DEGRADABILITY OF LOCAL GRASSES IN THE RUMEN OF GOAT Ismartoyo*, Rohmiyatul Islamiyati*, Syahriani*, and Asmuddin Natsir*
*Faculty of Animal Husbandry, Hasanuddin University
Abstract
The main aim of this experiment in sacco was to examine the characteristic degradation of four local grasses in the rumen of goat. Those of four grasses studied were R1=Elephant grass, R2= Mini elephant grass, R3=Panicum maximum grass, and R4=Brachiaria decumbens grass. Randomised complete design (RCD) was employed to allocate four fistulated goat. The protocol for this study was approved by the Ethical Review Committee of the Hasanuddin University Makassar, before the commencement of the experiment. Goat was kept in an individual metabolism crate and fed with general purpose diets. A general purpose (GP) diet was mixed with equal amounts of those 4 grasses Elephant grass (R1), Mini elephant grass (R2), Panicum maximum grass (R3) and Brachiaria decumbens grass (R4). The GP diet was added with 20% of rice bran. Water and salt were provided ad libitum. Voluntary feed intake was then measured every day by weighing feed offered at 7am and feed residue at 7 am in the next day. In order to determine the DM degradability, 3 g samples of four grasses were weighed in duplicates into standard nylon bags. The bags were incubated in the rumen and withdrawn after 4, 8, 12, 24, 48, and 72h. The result of this experiment showed that the average of feed voluntary feed intakes was dry matter 460.5g/d, organic matter 984.9g/d, and crude protein 139.8g/d, respectively. The dry matter loss at 72h after incubation was R1=55.7%, R2=55.6%, R3=53.2%, and R4=46.1%, respectively. The crude protein loss after 72h of incubation was 71.9%, 62.7%, 72.1%, and 62.5%, respectively. The characteristics degradation of R1was a=9.9%, b=64.4%, and c=0.05- R2 was a=16.5%. b=45.3%. c=0.04- R3 was a=7.4%. b=68.2%. and c=0.04- and R4 was a=6.7%, b=56.2%, and c=0.06. Mini elephant grass had the longest of lag time (4.2h) compared to that of other grass studied (average 1.2h). It is concluded that all of the local grasses investigated were acceptable, palatable, and readily degradable by rumen microbes in the rumen of goat. Therefor those of 4 grasses are a good feed resources for ruminant.r
