Valor nutritivo do feno de capim-de-raiz (Choloris orthonoton, Doell) para pequenos ruminantes

Abstract

The capim-de-raiz is a native legume of the semi-arid present in large areas of pasture in the Wasteland and backwoods of Pernambuco. There are few studies on its nutritional value, a fact which limits the knowledge of their forage potential in animal production. Thus, the purpose of this study was to characterize the nutritional value and nitrogen balance in sheep and ruminal degradation kinetics in goats fed grass hay from the root. The hay was made when the meadow was in bloom was coming from private property located in the Wasteland Mesoregion of São Caetano-Pernambuco, Brazil. The experiment was carried out at the Sheep and Goat Farming, Department of Animal Science, Federal Rural University of Pernambuco. To study the intake, digestibility and nitrogen balance were used five Santa Ines sheep with a mean weight of 28.34 kg BW. To evaluate the digestibility and consumption we used the combination of hay with soybean meal in the proportions, 60% hay and 40% soybean meal and 50% hay and 50% soybean meal. To study the rumen were used three adult male goats, with permanent rumen fistula, using eight times for incubation of the samples (0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72 and 96h). The hay had 90.66% of dry matter (DM), 7.16% crude protein (CP), acid detergent insoluble nitrogen (ADIN) of 13.45% of Total Nitrogen, 65.34% fiber neutral detergent (NDF) and 12,47% lignin. The high lignin content added to the low palatability, probably reflected the low intake of hay by sheep presented (1.39% of BW). The digestibility of DM, CP and NDF were 52.8, 70.55 and 40.34% respectively. The low consumption of grass hay from the root, made in flowering stage leads to the recommendation that is not provided as sole food in the diet of sheep in rational systems.