Assessment of the Nutritive and Anti-Nutritive Values of Some Selected Browse Plants in Mayo-Ine, Fufore LGA of Adamawa State, North-Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

The study was conducted to evaluate the nutritional value of some selected semi-arid browse forages. Ten browse forages consumed by ruminants were selected for the study. They were subjected to chemical, mineral and anti-nutritional analysis as well as rumen degradation. Results revealed that the browse species had high levels of crude protein that varied among the species ranging from 8.15% in Vitellaria paradoxa to 21.07% in Acacia senegal. The mean rumen degradability of the browses showed 17.79%, 33.38%, 45.65%, 50.17%, 54.31% and 62.21% at 0, 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 hours of incubation respectively. All the browses had degraded over 50% at 48 hours of incubation except Detarium microcarpum (49.90%) and Magnifera indica (49.70%). Therefore, all the browse plants studied can be used to support ruminant nutrition.