Genin Didier, Khorchani T., Hammadi M. (2007). Improving nutritive value of a North African range grass (Stipa tenacissima) : Effect of dung ash and urea treatment on digestion by goats. Animal Feed Science and Technology, 136 (1-2), p. 1-10. ISSN 0377-8401.
Titre du document
Improving nutritive value of a North African range grass (Stipa tenacissima) : Effect of dung ash and urea treatment on digestion by goats
Animal Feed Science and Technology, 2007,
136 (1-2), p. 1-10 ISSN 0377-8401
In and zones of North Africa, hays formerly harvested from native range forages such as Alfa (Stipa tenacissima), can provide alternative diets for livestock during periods of forage scarcity. However, they usually constitute low-quality forages. Soaking Alfa hay in alkaline solutions prepared from dung ash, with the addition of urea, was evaluated as a potential economic treatment for improving rumen digestibility. A digestion trial was conducted using 3-year-old male goats to compare digestibility of untreated Alfa hay with a treatment containing a 200 g/L solution of dung ash from dromedary, and 30 g/kg urea. A second experiment was conducted in order to evaluate the effectiveness of dung ash source (dromedary or goat), concentration of dung ash solution (0, 100, 200 or 300 g/L) and urea (0 or 30 g/kg) on in vitro digestibility of Alfa amongst goats. Results of digestion trials showed that treated Alfa hay had higher (P < 0.01) digestion coefficients for dry matter (0.483 versus 0.420), organic matter (0.558 versus 0.487), neutral detergent fiber (0.664 versus 0.531) and acid detergent fiber (0.620 versus 0.545) than untreated hay. Crude protein apparent digestibility presented no significant different values (P > 0.05) between untreated and treated hay (0.356 versus 0.402). Daily dry matter intake ranged from 40.8 to 46.2 g/kg BW0.75 for untreated and treated hay, respectively (P < 0.05). This resulted in an increase of the daily digestible dry matter intake of about 31% for treated hay as compared with the untreated hay. Results of the second experiment showed that in vitro organic matter digestibility coefficient (IVOMD) raised from 0.271 for untreated hay to 0.499 for Alfa hay treated with a 300 g/L solution of dung ash from goats and with 30 g/kg urea. Dung ash from goats appeared to have a higher effect than those from dromedary. Meanwhile, IVOMD of Alfa hay only treated with 30 g/L urea was intermediary (0.403). It is concluded that treating Alfa hay with a 200 g/L solution of dung ashes and 30 g/kg urea can provide an average quality forage which meets the nutritional maintenance requirements of livestock. The significance of these findings is discussed in relation to feeding management strategies for low-input livestock systems.
