The intake and digestibility in goats of Leucaena leucocephala supplemented with dehydrated palm oil mill effluent

Abstract

Goats of 18 months of age and 22 kg live weight (LW) were fed ad libitum Leucaena leucocephala of 2, 6 and 10 weeks regrowth supplemented with 0.0 (control) or 20.0 g kg −1 LW day −1 of dehydrated palm oil mill effluent (POME) for 8 weeks. On control diets, Leucaena intake was 25.8, 22.8 and 23.8 g dry matter (DM) kg −1 LW day −1; DM digestibility (DMD) was 65.1, 57.0 and 53.1%, and neutral detergent fibre digestibility (FD) was 59.6, 53.5 and 52.7%, respectively for 2, 6 and 10 weeks regrowth. Supplementary POME depressed Leucaena intake but significantly increased total intake for all regrowths. Replacement rates were 0.54, 0.36 and 0.31, respectively, for the 2, 6 and 10 weeks regrowth. Supplementary POME increased DMD and FD; the increases were higher for the mature regrowths of lower DMD. The coefficients of intake and digestibility were significantly correlated and multivariate statistical procedures were also used in the analysis of the data. Differences between regrowths were not significant ( P > 0.05) when both coefficients of intake and digestibility were included in the analysis. Significance ( P < 0.05) was achieved with digestibility coefficients, DMD contributing more to the observed differences than FD. Supplementation with POME had a significant effect ( P < 0.001) on both sets of coefficients measured. Intake contributed most to the difference between control and supplemented diets. Supplementing Leucaena with POME allows mature regrowths of the crop to be fed to goats.