Effect of shredded Colophospermum mopane wood inclusion as roughage on the performance of fattening Nguni cattle

Abstract

A study was conducted to determine the effect of shredded Colophospermum (C.) mopane wood inclusion as roughage on the performance of fattening Nguni heifers. The heifers were randomly allocated to four diets with different shredded C. mopane wood inclusion levels (5, 8.5, 10 and 15%) in a completely randomized design. Shredded C. mopane wood inclusion level had effect (P less than 0.05) on intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR). Diet intakes per metabolic weight and FCR of Nguni heifers were optimised at different shredded C. mopane wood inclusion levels. However, shredded C. mopane wood inclusion levels did not affect (P greater than 0.05) diet in vitro digestibility, carcass weight, dressing percentage, meat pH, meat shear force values and meat colour intensities except for red colour intensity of rump steak. It was, thus, concluded that shredded C. mopane wood can be used as roughage without adversely affecting diet intake, FCR, and live weight of Nguni heifers.