Effects of palm oil sludge in concentrate on nutrient utilization and rumen ecology of thai native cattle fed with hay

Abstract

This experiment aimed to study the effects of palm oil sludge (POS) in concentrate on nutrient utilization and rumenecology of Thai native cattle. Five ruminally fistulated Thai native bulls with average live weight of 361.80±15.74 kg werearranged according to 5x5 Latin square design. The cattle were fed with Plicatulum hay ad libitum and supplemented withconcentrate containing 0, 10, 20, 30 and 40% POS at 1.5 %BW. A metabolism trial lasted for 22 days, with the first 16 daysan adaptation period and the last 6 days the sample collection period. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) amongtreatments regarding hay and concentrate intake. Digestibility coefficient of DM, OM and ADF of all treatments were notsignificantly different (p>0.05) while CP digestibility coefficient was significantly lower (P0.05) whereas ruminal NH3-N concentration of cattle fed 0 and 20% POS were higher (p0.05) while the proportion of C4 of cattle fed 0% POS was higher (p0.05) while, BUN concentrationof cattle fed 40% POS was significantly lower (p<0.01) than those of cattle fed 0, 10, 20 and 30% POS. These results indicatethat the optimum level of POS in concentrate for Thai native cattle fed Plicalum hay as a roughage source should not exceed30%.

Keywords

• palm oil sludge
• nutrient utilization
• rumen ecology
• Thai native cattle