Department of Animal Nutrition, Haryana Agricultural University, Hissar-125004, India
Online published on 5 January, 2012.
Fourteen digestion trials on legume (berseem, lucerne, cowpea), non-legume (sorghum, maize, oats) and mixed (sorghum+cowpea, maize+cowpea, oat + berseem) forages were conducted in cross-bred cattle (2S0-370 kg) to evaluate their nutritive value. Inter-relation-ship between the fecal components and the measures of nutritive value were estimated. In the case of pooled data (n=84), the fecal N, EE, ADL and chromogen were significantly correlated with DMI, DMD and DDMI while NFE, CWC, ADF and cellulose were significantly negatively correlated. The prediction equations for estimating DMI (kg/100 kg body wt.), DDMI (kg/100 kg body wt.) and DM digestibility (%) of tropical forages were also developed.
