Supplementation of native grass hay with cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) hay, wilted leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala) forage, wilted tagasaste (Chamaecytisus palmensis) forage or a wheat middling for young Friesian X Zebu (Boran) crossbred steers

Abstract

An experiment was conducted with Friesian X Zebu (Boran) crossbred growing steers to compare an agro-industrial by-product, wheat middling cowpea hay, and wilted forages of leucaena and tagasaste as cattle feed. These feeds were fed daily to supplement the basal diet of native hay. A mineral supplement containing bone meal and common salt was also fed daily. The animals were group-fed but towards the end of the experiment, were housed individually in feeding pens to estimate the feed intake and digestibilities of the diets. The animals consumed all the supplements except for tagasaste forage. The mean daily total dry matter intake during the individual feeding ranged from 4.9-5.5 kg. The descending order of diets in digestible crude protein intake was wheat, leucaena, vigna, tagasaste and native hay. In the daily weight gains the feeds were ranked in descending order of wheat, leucaena, vigna, native hay and tagasaste. The daily gain on wheat middlings was higher than on any other diet. Poor palatability may be a major problem in feeding tagasaste to growing cattle.