Article Sidebar
Published:
Apr 17, 2024Keywords:
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
All opinions and articles published in the journal reflect the views of the authors and not necessarily those of the Journal. Submission of a paper implies that it has not been submitted or published elsewhere, and that the authors accept the conditions for publication outlined in the journal. Once accepted for publication, authors transfer copyright of their articles to GSAP unless expressly exempted in writing by the copyright holders. Those wishing to use illustrations or data from the journal in other publications should obtain permission from the publisher, and include a line acknowledging the journal as the source of material.
Main Article Content
Effects of concentrate supplement on dry matter and water intake, nutrient digestibility and nitrogen balance of N’dama bull calves fed Napier grass basal diet
Abstract
An experiment was carried out to assess the effects of concentrate supplements on dry matter and water intake, nutrient digestibility and nitrogen balance of N’dama bull calves fed Napier grass basal diet. Four N’dama bull calves were randomly assigned to one of four dietary treatments in a repeated 4 × 4 Latin Square Design. The treatments consisted of Napier grass only for T1 (Nap0 Conc), T2, Napier grass + concentrate fed at 1.5% LW (Nap1.5Conc), T3, Napier grass + concentrate fed at 2.0% LW (Nap2.0Conc) and T4, Napier grass + concentrate fed at 2.5% LW (Nap2.5Conc). Concentrate supplementation significantly (P<0.05) influenced DM intake, nutrient digestibility, and nitrogen balance. However, the average daily water intake was not affected (P>0.05) by the level of concentrate offered to the animals. The total DM intake of the animals ranged from 36.92 kg to 44.74 kg whereas the average DMI was in the range of 2.64 kg/d to 3.20 kg/d. Increasing the level of concentrate supplementation did not significantly increase total and average DMI but all were higher than the control. Except for ADF digestibility, all digestibility parameters measured were higher (P < 0.05) for the supplemented diets compared with the control. In the case of the nitrogen balance trial, supplementing Napier grass with the concentrate resulted in increased (P <0.0001) N-retention. It was concluded that supplementing a Napier grass basal diet with different levels of concentrates significantly improved N'dama bull calves' dry matter intake, nutrient digestibility, and nitrogen balance compared with the control. Furthermore, supplemental concentrate did not affect the animals' water intake.
