Ensiling of mulberry foliage (Morus alba) and the nutritive value of mulberry foliage silage for goats in central Vietnam.

Title

Ensiling of mulberry foliage (Morus alba) and the nutritive value of mulberry foliage silage for goats in central Vietnam.

Livestock Research for Rural Development

Creator

Xuan Ba Nguyen

Giang Vu Duy

Ngoan Le Duc

Subject

Biomass

Composition

Digestibility

Goats

Morus alba

Mulberry

Nitrogen retention

Shrubs

Silage

Date

2005

uri

http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd17/2/ba17015.htm

Abstract

The first experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of different additives (molasses or rice bran) on quality of silage made from mulberry (Morus alba) foliage. The second experiment was designed as a Latin square (5 x 5) with 5 growing goats with a mean live weight of 17.3 kg to determine effects of mulberry foliage silage on feed intake, digestibility, and nitrogen retention. The treatments were: (MS 0) natural grass ad libitum (basal diet), (MS 250) basal diet plus 250g/day mulberry foliage silage, (MS 500) basal diet plus 500 g/day mulberry foliage silage; (MS 750) basal diet plus 750 g/day mulberry foliage silage and (MS adlib.) mulberry foliage silage ad libitum.

The results from the first experiment showed that the mulberry foliage silage had a high protein and ash content and that the best quality was with 5% of molasses. The pH value and the ratio between N-NH3 and total N were lower in the silages with 5% of molasses. The results from the second experiment showed that mulberry foliage silage was very palatable for goats. The DM intake increased from 2.70 to 3.41 kg DM per 100 kg live weight as the proportion of mulberry silage increased from 0 to 40% of the diet DM. When only the mulberry silage was fed the intake was 3.02 kg DM/100 kg live weight. DM and OM digestibility coefficients did not differ between diets; however, there was a curvilinear (R²=0.94) increase in N retention as the offer level of mulberry silage increased. The retention of N on the 100% mulberry silage diet (5.2 g/day) was almost 3 times as high as on the grass hay diet.

volume

17

issue

15

Language

en