Kinetics of rumen fermentation of dwarf Elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum cv. Mott) with indigenous forage from karst mountain in Gombong, Central Java, Indonesia

Abstract

The damage to ecosystem due to limestone mining in karst mountain has decreased the productivity rate of indigenous forage. Dwarf elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum cv. Mott) has been introduced to used for limestone mining area of karst mountain in Gombong, Central Java Indonesia. The aim of the research was to evaluate the intake level of dwarf elephant grass as the indigenous forage-based goat feed derived from the karst mountain in Gombong, Central Java Indonesia. The experimental method with in vitro was used to measure the different ration level of dwarf elephant grass i.e. R0: 0%, R1: 25%, R2: 50% and R3: 75%. The result reported that the dry matter digestibility of R0 : 60.95% ± 3.82, R1 : 63.06% ± 2.77, R2 : 61.83% ± 2,00, andR3 : 59.62% ± 2.04;organic matter digestibility of R0 : 53.79% ± 1.78, R1 : 56.82% ± 2.42, R2 : 55.95% ± 1.75, and R3 : 55.63% ± 1.53; the production of volatile fatty acids of R0 :124 mM±7.48, R1 :122mM±5.16 R2 :142 mM±12.44 and R3 :126mM±3.65; N-NH3 R0 : 3.30 mM ± 0.26, R1 : 2.80 mM ±0.33, R2 : 2.75 mM ± 0.44 and R3 : 2.45 mM ± 0.33.The result of experiment showed that the supplementation of 25% dwarf elephant grass of the total forage could improve the kinetics of ruminal fermentation.