Nutritional characterization and evaluation of bamboo leaves hay potential as a basal diet for lactating crossbred cows in Ethiopia Kitaw Getu*, Gebregziabhear Eyob1, Urge Beksisa, Mulatu Yigardu2, Acheampong Ernest Nti3 Ethiopian, Institute of Agricultural Research, Holetta Research Center, Holetta, P.O. Box 31, Ethiopia 1Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Debre Zeit Research Center, PO Box 32, Bishoftu, Ethiopia 2Ethiopian Enviornment and Forest Research Institute, PO Box 30708Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 3International Bamboo and Rattan Organization (INBAR), PO Box UP928, Kumari, Ghana *Corresponding author: kitaw2006@yahoo.com
Online Published on 21 July, 2022. Abstract Kitaw, G., Gebregziabhear, E., Urge, B., Mulatu, Y. and Acheampong, E.N. 2022. Nutritional characterization and evaluation of bamboo leaves hay potential as a basal diet for lactating crossbred cows in Ethiopia. Animal Nutrition and Feed Technology, 22: 107–121. The study was carried out with the main objective to nutritionally characterize dominantly available bamboo species in Ethiopia. The study was also aimed to evaluating bamboo fodder hay as a basal diet alone or in combination with natural pasture grass hay on intake, digestibility, milk yield and composition and body weight of lactating cows. The leaves samples of major bamboo species collected from Injibara and Chagni districts in the Awi zone of Amhara Regional state representing highland and introduced bamboo species in Ethiopia were analysed for chemical composition. Locations around Assossa town were also considered to collect leaves samples representing lowland bamboo species. Accordingly, the introduced bamboo had the highest CP (15.9%) (P<0.05) compared to both the lowland (13.3%) and highland bamboo (14.3%) species. Ash, NDF and ADF contents were recorded to be higher (P<0.05) for introduced bamboo (13.2, 77.7 and 50.3%) followed by highland (12.2, 75.1 and 46.4%) and lowland bamboo (11.1, 73.4 and 44.1%) species. Lignin contents were lower (P<0.05) for the lowland bamboo (9.5%). In a feeding experiment, cows were randomly assigned to receive no bamboo leaves as a control diet (T1=BLO) and diets containing bamboo leaves replacing natural pasture hay as a basal diet at the rate of 25 (T2=BL25), 50 (T3=50), 75 (T4=BL75) and 100% (T5=BL100) using 5X5 latin square design. Hay intake was higher (P<0.05) for cows receiving the BL0 diet but then decreased with the level of bamboo leaves inclusion in the diets. In contrast, bamboo leaves hay followed an opposite trends (P<0.05) to that of the hay intake. Total dry matter intake and other nutrients intake and digestibility were recorded to be markedly higher (P<0.05) when the cows were receiving the BL25 and BL50 diets. However, apparent NDF and ADF digestibility, remained similar (P>0.05) across dietary treatments. Daily milk production was considerably higher (P<0.05) for cows receiving the BL50 diet but seem to have declined thereafter with higher replacement levels. Milk composition and body weight changes of the cows remained unaffected (P>0.05) as compared to control group. It can be concluded that nutrient intake, digestibility and milk production of high grade crossbred cows can be substantially improved when bamboo leaves hay replaces natural pasture hay up to 50%. Top Keywords Bamboo specie, Crossbred cows, Digestibility, Intake, Milk yield and composition. Top |