Liveweight gain, change in body dimension and condition score of Donggala bulls fed corn stover supplemented with different tree legume leaves

Abstract

An experiment was done to examine the effect of the addition of different legume leaves on live weight gain, change in body dimension, and condition score of Donggala bulls fed corn stover (CS). Twenty-eight Donggala bulls (initial body weight (BW) 179.48±3.66 kg) were blocked by BW in a randomized complete block design with 4 treatments and 7 replicates. The treatments were CS ad libitum, CS plus Desmanthus virgatus (CSD), CS plus Gliricidia sepium (CSG), and CS plus Leucaena leucocephala (CSL). All supplements were offered at level 1% BW dry matter (DM)/day. The experiment was run for 16 weeks, with 2 and 14 weeks for the introduction and measurement period, respectively. The parameters observed include average daily live weight gain (ADG), wither height, heart girth, body length, and body condition score (BCS). It was observed that the addition of different tree legumes leaves lifted up significantly (P<0.05) ADG, change in heart girth, BCS but did not affect significantly (P>0.05) change of wither height and body length of Donggala bulls fed CS. The addition of Leucaena resulted in the highest increase (P<0.05) in ADG, change of heart girth, and BCS. It was concluded that supplementation of tree legume leaves increased the growth performance of Donggala bulls fed CS.