Asian Research Journal of Current Science

A study was conducted to assess the nutritional quality of ensiled (Tephrosia) Tephrosia bracteolata with different sources of water soluble carbohydrates viz ground yam peel, ground cassava peel, ground sweet potatoes, ground cassava sieviate, ground maize offal, ground corn gluten and sorghum gluten for dry season feeding. The forage was harvested separately chopped into 1-2cm length manually and mixed thoroughly with 500 g and 50 g DM of each additives and designated as T₁, T₂, T₃, T₄, T₅, T_6, T₇ and T₈ respectively. The treatments were ensiled in a polythene bag silos in four replicates per treatment and kept for 210 days. The silages were evaluated for quality characteristics, chemical composition and in vitro gas production evaluation, using standard procedure. The results obtained showed that the silages were adequately fermented with pleasant and fruity odour, olive-greenish colour, firm and dry texture. The pH (4.6-5.2) and temperature (25.54–27.86⁰C) of the silages were significantly different while moisture content (MC %) and dry matter (DM %) were similar across the treatments. The crude protein (CP) ranged value (16.89–19.08%) and crude fibre (CF) 23.40–26.20 contents of silages varied significantly (P<0.05) across the treatments. However, ether extract (EE) and non-fibre carbohydrates (NFC) of the silages were similar across the treatments (P>0.05). The fibre fractions (neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL), cellulose and hemicellulose of the silages also differed significantly (P<0.05) across the treatments. The results of in vitro gas production evaluation showed that all the parameters such as total gas volume (TGVml), methane (CH₄ml), fermentation efficiency (FE), short chain fatty acids (SCFA µml), metabolisable energy (ME), organic matter digestibility (OMD%) and dry matter degradability (DMD%) varied from 10.67 to 26.67ml, 4.00 to 12.00ml, 1.80 to 6.25, 0.20 to 0.58µml, 4.66 to 6.72MJ/KgDM, 48.55 to 64.94% and 48.05 to 66.16% respectfully. The results of this study indicated that ensiled Tephrosia bracteolata with different water soluble carbohydrates (WSC) improved physico-chemical properties of the silages. The addition of WSC additives improved and preserved the crude protein (CP) content of ensiled Tephrosia bracteolata (legume forage) significantly while the in vitro gas production evaluation result revealed low methane (CH₄ml) production an indication of reduction in energy loss and more energy would be available to the ruminants animal. Hence, the study recommends 10% of any WSC additives used in this study to ensile Tephrosia bracteolata which is available and affordable.