The potential of tropical grass as a feed in ruminant by using an in vitro gas production

Abstract

Pennisetum purpoides is one of the most widely cultivated tropical forages and it is often used as animal feed in Indonesia. However, grass feeding could not fulfill the need of nutrients if served as single feed because it contained of high crude fiber and low protein. In terms of nutritional adequacy, animal feed should contain complete nutritional value in order to achieve an optimum productivity. This experiment aimed to elucidate the potential of tropical grass as a feed in ruminant by using an in vitro gas production technicque. The grasses were determined for proximate analysis, Van Soest fiber fractions (neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber and acid detergent lignin), and in vitro rumen fermentation parameters. This study was conducted from January until April 2018 at Nutrition Laboratory, Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. This study used a randomized block design with 3 replications. There were three treatments tested in this study, i.e. (1) Pennisetum purpoides (T1), (2) Setaria splendida (T2), (3) Setaria anceps (T3). Parameters measured in the in vitro study is total gas production. Data were tested using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and continued with Duncan test if there was a significant difference among treatments. The data showed that gas production is not significantly different (P>0,05).