The nutritive value of Leucaena leucocephala for Indonesian ruminants.

Abstract

Animal Production in Australia THE NUTRITIVE VALUE OF LEUCAENA LEUCOCEPHALA FOR INDONESIAN RUMINANTS N.G. YATES* There is little information on the nutritive value of Leucaena leucocephala for small ruminants though it is considered to be a promising forage for the tropics. Dry matter digestibilities of 71.4% in goats (Upadhyay et al. 1974) and 59.7% in sheep (Yerena et al. 1976) and a dry matter intake of 2.2% of live weight for goats (Upadhyay et al. 1974) have been reported. As part of studies to determine the response of Indonesian sheep and goats offered a sole diet of leucaena, dry matter intake (DMI) and digestibility (DMD) and liveweight gains (LWG) were measured for both pelleted and fresh leucaena. Four does (Kambing Bogor), four Javanese thin-tail (JTT) and four British breed x JTT ewes were initially offered pelleted leucaena ad libitum for 12 (goats) and 13 (sheep) weeks. The diet was changed to fresh leucaena offered ad libitum for the same periods of time. Seven day balance trials were conducted during thelast week of each feeding period. The concentrations of mimosine and DHP in the feed were determined weekly and plasma thyroxine concentrations were determined at the end of each feeding period. TABLE 1 Dry matter intakes and digestibilities and liveweight gains Values with the. same superscript are not significantly different. The intakes of pelleted leucaena were greater than, or equal to, those for fresh leucaena. However liveweight gains and digestibilities were significantly FCR's for higher, within breeds, for fresh leucaena than for pelleted leucaena. fresh leucaena were approximately half those for pelleted leucaena. The mean intakes of mimosine plus DHP were 7 and 11 g per day for pelleted and fresh The corresponding plasma thyroxine concentrations were100 leucaena respectively. and 78 ng/ml. No clinical signs of mimosine or DHP toxicity were observed. The use of pelleted leucaena is not recommended because of its poor utilization. The intake and digestibility of fresh leucaena by JTT ewes was similar to that recorded for diets containing concentrate (Obst et a1.1980). However, the liveweight gains, though sustained, were less than half and the FCR's approximately double for fresh leucaena compared with those diets. Some factor(s) other than altered thyroid activity appeared to limit the performance of animals consuming leucaena as a sole diet. OBST, J-M., NAPITUPULU,Z. and BOYES, T. (1980). Proceedings First AsianAustralasian Animal Science Congress, Selangor, Malaysia (in press). UPADHYAY, V.S., REKIB,A; and PATHAK, P.S. (1974). Indian Vet. J. z:534. YERENA, F., FERREIRO, H.M., ELLIOT, R., GODOY, R. and PRESTON, T-R. (1978). Trop. Anim. Prod. = 3:27. * Project for Animal Research and Development, P-0. Box 123, Bogor, Indonesia. 678