New roughage source of cv. Mahasarakham utilization for ruminants feeding under global climate change

Abstract

Objective As the climate changes, it influences ruminant’s feed intake, nutrient digestibility, rumen methane production and emission. This experiment aimed to evaluate the effect of feeding Sweet grass (Pennisetum purpureum cv. Mahasarakham; SG) as a new source of good quality forage to improve feed utilization efficiency and to mitigate rumen methane production and emission. Methods Four, growing crossbred of Holstein Friesian heifers, 14 months old, were arranged in a 4×4 Latin square design to receive four dietary treatments. Treatment 1 (T1) was rice straw (RS) fed on ad libitum with 1.0% body weight (BW) of concentrate (C) supplementation (RS/1.0C). Treatment 2 (T2) and treatment 3 (T3) were SG, fed on ad libitum with 1.0% and 0.5% BW of concentrate supplementation, respectively (SG/1.0C and SG/0.5C, respectively). Treatment 4 (T4) was total Sweet grass fed on ad libitum basis with non-concentrate supplementation (TSG). Results The results revealed that roughage and total feed intake were increased with SG when compared to RS (p0.05). Conclusion As the results, SG could be a good forage to improve rumen fermentation, decrease methane production and reduced the level of concentrate supplementation for growing ruminants in the tropics especially under global climate change.

Keywords

• Forage Utilization
• Sweet Grass
• Feed Quality
• Global Climate Change
• Ruminants