Comparative evaluation of nutritive value of maize stover treated with chopped and mineralized groundnut and soybean stover

Abstract

This study assessed the value of upgrading the quality of crop residues. The study involved improvement of quality of maize stover with urea, groundnut powder, soybean powder, mineralized groundnut solution and mineralized soybean solution. The nutritional value of the ground groundnut, ground soybean, mineralized groundnut solution, mineralized soybean solution, and the feeds improved with the ground legume stover and the solutions were assessed for nutritive value using laboratory proximate chemical analysis procedures. The stover were chopped before being mixed with urea, ground stover or the solutions and then offered to animals. Effect of upgrading maize stover with selected legumes was studied for nutritive value by proximate analysis. Five(5) samples of each feeding material were subjected to proximate analysis to determine their nutritive value in terms of crude protein (CP), gross energy (GE), dry matter (DM), ether extract (EE) and nitrogen free extractives (NFE), crude fibre(CF) using the AOAC methods of 2016. Samples were also evaluated for neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF), using the Van Soest and Moore Method of 1991 calcium (Ca) using the Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS-2016) and direct determination of phosphorus by Atomic Absorption Flame Spectrometry (AAFS-2017).