Rumen degradation in sheep, goats and cattle and voluntary intake by sheep of four browse species

Two experiments were conducted using dried leaves of Alchornea cordifolia, Ficus capensis, Manniophytum fulvum and Albizza niopoides. In Experiment 1, dry matter (DM) degradation characteristics were investigated using the in sacco nylon bag technique in West African Dwarf (WAD) sheep, WAD goats and Bunaji steers. In Experiment 2, voluntary intake of the browse forage when fed as supplements to sheep at 0,10 and 30 percent levels was measured. In Experiment 1, A. cordifolia and M. fulvum had significantly higher rapidly degradable DM fraction than A. niopoides and F. capensis. Averaged across browse species, the extent of DM degradation for sheep (58.3 percent) was significantly higher than for goat (47.7 percent) or cattle (44.1 percent). Ranking order of browse species for the extent of DM degradation was: F. capensis > A. Cordifolia = M. fulvum = A. niopoides. In Experiment 2, as the level of supplementation increased from 10 to 30 percent, voluntary intake of A. niopoides and M. fulvum increased while voluntary intake of A. cordifolia and F. capensis declined. The results suggest that dried leaves of A. niopoides and M. fulvum are more acceptable to WAD sheep than those of A. cordifolia and F. capensis