Replacing sunflower oilcake with Sericea lespedezaand/or urea on feed digestibility and milk production of Saanen goats

Abstract

In conditions where supplementation of poor quality diets is a major challenge, forage legumes such as Sericea lespedeza can be a good alternative supplement for protein at lower cost than most commercial concentrates. From studies done on Sericea lespedeza it is found plausible and valuable to supplement urea with Sericea lespedeza to strategically combat the deleterious effect of condensed tannins in the Sericea lespedeza and provide nitrogen in the rumen. This study was aimed to evaluate the effect of replacing sunflower oilcake with urea (a rumen degradable protein RDP source) or Sericea lespedeza (rumen undegradable protein RUP source) mixed with urea as nitrogen/protein sources on nutrient utilization, milk yield and milk composition of Saanen dairy goats. A digestibility and lactation study were conducted at the University of Pretoria Research Farm and chemical analysis performed at the University Nutrilab. A 30 days digestibility study was conducted on male Saanen goats after the lactation study, with 23 days adaptation and 7 days data collection period. Nine male goats were randomised and allocated to the three treatments in metabolism cages. In the lactation study 36 dairy goats were blocked according to milk collected on first month of lactation into high, medium and low milk yielders, then allocated to the three treatments of total mixed rations containing sunflower oilcake (T1) at 7% main protein source, T2 (urea at 1%) and T3- Sericea lespedeza at 12.5% mixed with urea according to a complete randomised block design (CRBD). Milk samples were collected from individual goats monthly at two consecutive milking’s. The samples were analysed for milk fat, protein, lactose, somatic cell count and milk urea nitrogen using a Milko-Scan analyser (at Irene Lacto lab). In the digestibility study, dry matter intake was significantly higher for goats fed on Sericea lespedeza with urea (T3) diet than goats fed on T1 and T2 diet. Goats on T3 diet had also significantly higher organic matter and crude protein intake than those goats fed on the other two TMR diets. The results also shows that the mean daily milk yields for the goats in the T1, T2 and T3 were 2.56, 2.46 and 2.52 kg per day respectively. T2 group had higher milk fat % (3.61) and higher milk urea nitrogen (MUN - 25.70 mg N/dl) than the other two treatments. T1 had significantly higher milk protein %. There was a great difference in milk composition of the afternoon milk as compared to the morning milk. The three TMRs had no significant difference in the nitrogen utilization and nitrogen excretion. It is then concluded that Sericea lespedeza mixed with urea can be used as subsititutes for sunflower oilcake in the diets of dairy goats since no negetive effect was found. However further investigations are needed.