The nutritive value of Ceratonia siliqua and Gleditsia triacanthos pods was determined on the basis of their chemical composition, in vitro gas production and rumen fermentation end-products. Medicago sativa was used as a reference feed material. The studied samples showed differences in chemical composition and phenolic compounds. Crude protein (CP) content was particulary low (80 g/kg DM) in ...

An in situ study was conducted on four rumen-cannulated wethers to determine (using (15)N infusion techniques) the microbial contamination (mg bacterial DM or crude protein (CP)/100 mg DM or CP) and the associated error on the effective degradability of fourteen feeds: barley and maize grains, soyabean and sunflower meals, full-fat soyabean, maize gluten feed, soyabean hulls, brewers dried grai...

To evaluate the effects of treating or supplementing common reed (Phragmites australis) with 2% urea on intake, nutrient apparent digestibility, and blood metabolites, fifteen Baluchi rams (35.4±2.3 kg body weight) were used in a completely randomized design. Treatments were as follows: 1) common reed, 2) common reed supplemented with 2% urea solution at feeding, and 3) common reed tre...

The aim of this study was to determine the chemical composition and in vitro digestibility, and to estimate the in vitro fermentation parameters of palm leaves and pedicels from Ghars palm variety. A rumen in situ technique was also used to examine In vitro Digestible Dry Matter (IDDM), In vitro Digestible Crude Protein (IDCP), and In vitro Digestible Neutral Fiber (IDNF), and rate and extent o...

Twenty growing Small East African goats were used to determine the effects of feeding sun-dried leaves of the browse forages Berchemia discolor and Zizyphus mucronata as supplements to low-quality basal diet, Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana) hay, on voluntary feed intake (VFI), digestibility and growth performance. The grass hay and maize bran were used as a control. The dried leaves were then inc...

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L:) usually grown as a source of oil can be also used as fodder either for hay or ensiling purposes, particularly in semiarid regions. In 2002-2003 a research project was carried out in Southern Italy to evaluate the production and forage quality of safflower biomass cv Centennial (high oleic), harvested at three different stage: May 14 (at complete appearance of...

An experiment (3 trials) was conducted to determine the AME(n) of 15 corn co-products obtained from various wet and dry milling plants, and to develop prediction equations for AME(n) based on chemical composition. Co-products included distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS, n = 6), high-protein distillers dried grains (n = 2), corn germ (n = 2), corn germ meal, corn bran with solubles, cor...

The comparison of the predictions of the digestible energy (DE) content of commercial compound pig feeds from the organic matter in vitro digestibility (OMD) and five recent and accurate multiple regression equations based on chemical components was examined. The OMD was determined by submitting each sample (17 compound feeds for lactating or pregnant sows and 23 for piglets and growing±fatteni...

this experiment was conducted to determine the effects of propionic acid, formic acid, molasses and molasses plus urea on chemical composition, microbial population, ruminal degradability of dry matter (dm) and crude protein (cp), and aerobic stability of corn silage. prior to ensiling, whole crop corn was chapped and treated with water (control), propionic acid (1%), formic acid (0.8%), molass...

An experiment was carried out to evaluate how interactions between forage to concentrate ratio and dietary crude protein level may alter nitrogen efficiency and UT-B expression in growing Baluchi male lambs. Four Baluchi male lambs [30 ± 2 kg BW] were used in a 4 × 4 latin square design with 28-d periods and a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of dietary treatments. The treatments fed forage: concent...