Rumen degradation characteristics of sweet potato foliage and performance by local and crossbred calves fed milk and foliage from three cultivars

Abstract

The study investigated rumen dry matter (DM) degradability characteristics in a completely randomized design and the effects of milk, sweet potato foliage (SPF) from three cultivars (A=TIS-87/0087; B=TIS-8164; C=TIS-2532.OP.1.13), dried brewers' grains (DBG) and cottonseed meal (CSM) as supplements to Panicum maximum (Panicum) for pre-weaned calves in randomized complete block designs. Diet 1 = milk + SPF-A foliage + Panicum, Diet 2 = milk + SPF-B foliage + Panicum, Diet 3 = milk + SPF-C foliage+Panicum, and Diet 4=milk+DBG & CSM+Panicum (as control). Dry matter (130 +/- 0.4 to 864 +/- 3.9 g kg(-1)), ash (54 +/- 4.2 to 173 +/- 2.8 g kg(-1) DM), OM (827 +/- 4.2 to 946 +/- 5.7 g kg(-1) DM), N (7.4 +/- 0.6 to 38.6 +/- 1.4 g kg(-1) DM), and NDF (439 1.4 to 774 +/- 8.5 g kg(-1) DM) contents were highly significant (P 0.05). Supplement DMI varied (P 0.05) among crosses. Birthweight varied (P 0.05) in slowly degradable fraction (b) and rate of degradation of b (c). Soluble fraction (a), 48-h degradation, potential degradability (PD) and effective degradability (ED) varied significantly (P < 0.05) and were lowest in Panicum, but similar for foliage among the three sweet potato cultivars. Panicum fodder showed improvements in degradation characteristics with supplementation. (c) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V