Types of Tropical Legume Leaf Meal in Dietary Concentrate Increased the Production of Forage-finished Beef Bali Cattle

Abstract

The objective of this experiment was to assess the production responses of forage-finished beef Bali cattle fed concentrated feed containing different types of leaf meal tropical legumes. Sixteen forage-finished male beef Bali cattle (Bos javanicus) with an average body weight of 175.20±27.85 kg and aged 1.5-2.5 years were raised for 54 days for data collection. A randomized completely block design was used, which consisted of four dietary treatments and four replicates. The dietary treatments, which were formulated to be isonitrogenous to provide 120 g/kg dry matter (DM) crude protein, included Cipelang grass (Pennisetum purpureum cv. Taiwan) as a basal diet (Con) or a control supplemented with a dietary concentrate containing either leaf meal of Gliricidia (Gliricidia sepium) 54.57% (Gliri), Leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala) 55.59% (Leu) or Moringa (Moringa oleifera) 40.85% (Mor). The feed intake, average daily gain (ADG), feed conversion ratio (FCR), digestibility and blood parameters were measured. The results showed that legume leaf meal supplementation significantly increased (P0.05). The highest ADG was recorded for Leu and Mor cattle, which was in line with the highest feed intake. In conclusion, forage-finished beef Bali cattle fed Cipelang grass as a basal diet grew faster when supplemented with dietary concentrate containing Moringa or Leucaena leaf meal.

Keywords

• bali cattle
• legume
• protein supplementation