The Effect of Feeding Ipil-Ipil Leaves and Sugarcane Tops on the Performance of Caraheifers (Swamp Buffaloes)

The response of supplementation of dried ipil-ipil leaves, concentrates, urea-molasscs-mineral block lick, and sugarcane tops was studied on 20 caraheifers grazing on improved pasture containing 12% CP. In a 5-month study, it was observed that supplementation had no significant response over the control treatment (T₁) where animals were grazed for 4 hours and fed sugarcane tops soilage ad libitum. Supplementation with urea-molasses block lick (T₂), dried ipil-ipil leaves at 1% body weight (T3) and concentrate mixture at 3% live weight plus urea-molasses-block lick (T₄), did not show any significant difference on growth rate. This indicated that grazing supplemented with sugarcane tops was able to meet the nutritional requirement of caraheifers.