Indian Journal of Animal Nutrition

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of feeding silage of sorghum-butterfly pea mixture (which was made of forage harvested from sorghum sown at differing planting space and intercropped with Clitoria ternatea) on intake, digestibility, rumen environment and blood metabolites of Kacang goats. The experiment was designed following a replicated latin square with three treatments and three periods. In each period, two goats were randomly fed one of the three silage mixture which was made of clitoria and sorghum mixture harvested from sorghum planting space of 20×20 cm² (S₂₀), 40×40 cm² (S₄₀) and 60×60 cm² (S₆₀). Data on feed intake, digestibility, ruminal pH, ammonia (NH₃) and volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations as well as blood glucose and total plasma protein were collected during the last week of each period which lasted for three weeks. Results showed that crude protein (CP) content were increased with increasing sorghum planting space as the proportion of clitoria in the forage mixture increased. Meanwhile, crude fiber (CF) were comparable among different silage. Dry matter intake (DMI) and digestibility were not different (P>0.05) in Kacang goats fed different silage. However, rumen NH₃ and VFA concentrations were significantly (P<0.05) lower in S₂₀ compared to S₄₀ and S₆₀ groups. It is concluded that in order to produce good quality silage for Kacang goats there is no benefit of increasing sorghum planting space beyond 40×40 cm² when intercropped with Clitoria ternatea.