Nutritional Evaluation of Commonly Utilised Forages in Cattle

Proximate constituents, macro and micro nutrient evaluation of 12 commonly utilized forages fed to cattle was undertaken (1999). It shows that the composition of different proximate constituents like DM, CP, EE, CF and NFE ranged from 86.53 to 92.95,7.27 to 11.13,7.30 to 20.40, 0.93 to 1.91, 17.05 to 42.11 and 17.40 to 43.33 per cent respectively. The macro nutrients like P, K, Ca and Mg ranged from 0.02% to 0.21,0.43 to 1.73,0.17 to 1.13 and 0.04 to 1.17% respectively, while the over all average values were 0.12%, 1.06%, 0.58% and 0.45% respectively. The micro nutrients like Fe, Mn, Cu and Zn concentration ranged from 21 to 92 ppm, 7 to 19 ppm, 10 to 62 ppm and 10 to 34 ppm respectively, irrespective to type of fodder fed to livestock. While the over all average values of Fe, Mn, Cu and Zn were 49.83,12.32, 22.85 and 22.19 ppm respectively It seems that the leguminous and non leguminous cultivated fodders are fairly good sources of nutrients.