Effect of different levels of matikalai (Vigna mungo) hay supplementation to straw-based diets on feed intake, digestibility and growth rate of indigenous cattle

M S Hossain, M Y Miah¹, Z H Khandaker and F Islam²

Department of Animal Nutrition, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh
myoumsau2003@gmail.com
¹ Department of Poultry Scienc, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet-3100, Bangladesh.
² Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh

Abstract

A study was conducted to examine the effect of four levels of Vigna hay supplementation on feed intake, digestibility and growth rate of indigenous cattle. Twelve indigenous bull calves (age 2-3 years and average 83.4 kg live weight) were randomly assigned to 4 groups and fed 4 experimental diets VM0 = Basal diet + 0 g (DM) vigna hay, VM106 = Basal diet + 106g (DM) vigna hay, VM212 = Basal diet + 212g (DM) vigna hay and VM318 = Basal diet + 318g (DM) vigna hay. The basal diet was formulated with rice straw, wheat bran, rice polishings, mustard oil cake and molasses. Measurements were made of feed intake, digestibility and growth rate. All the animals were offered ad libitum rice straw.

Straw and total DM intakes and apparent diet digestibility coefficients were increased, and live weight gain and feed conversion were improved, by adding increasing amounts of Vigna hay to the diets. Based on the above findings it may be concluded that supplementation of straw-based diets with vigna hay improves feed intake, nutrient digestibility and live weight gain of indigenous cattle.

Key words: legume, performance, straw utilization

Introduction

Feeding ruminants under rice-based farming systems in Bangladesh is highly dependent on low quality crop residues, particularly rice straw. But the nutritional value of rice straw is very poor due to lack of fermentable N to support rumen function, with a large amount of cell wall components with very little soluble cell contents, and low in minerals and vitamins. So, it cannot optimize rumen environment in terms of microbial requirement of readily fermentable carbohydrate, rumen ammonia and some minerals. As a result, growth rates or milk production of animals consuming rice straw alone are generally low and often only about 10% of the genetic potential of the animal (Leng 1995).

Methods for improvement of utilization of straw have largely dealt with physical, chemical (Saadullah et al 1982), or biological means and by supplementation with legumes (Chowdhury 1996). Among these methods of improving straw utilization, legume supplementation has been found satisfactory. Leguminous plants are a protein-rich feed and can be an effective supplement to straw-based diets for ruminants. Generally, legumes are rich in N, digestible energy and mineral elements such as sulfur (Minson 1982) and sometimes P, Na, Ca, Zn and Co (Elliot and McMeniman 1987). Many authors suggested that supplementation of legume could improve the utilization of low quality roughages; promote microbial protein synthesis and performance of cattle (Ranjhan and Singh 1993; Topps 1995 and Chowdhury 1996). Supplementation with leguminous forages appear to be more feasible alternative to improve the feeding value of rice straw in most developing countries like Bangladesh (Devendra 1985; Mosi and Butterworth 1985; Yilala 1989).

In Bangladesh, annual legumes are being introduced into rice-based systems either as relay crops or the cash crops replacing short-term fallow land. Different types of vigna species are available in the world such as Vigna mungo, V. lunatus, V. acontifollus, V. angularis, V. calcaratus, V. coccineus of which Vigna mungo is widely cultivated in Bangladesh. Vigna mungo, locally known as vigna is a rapidly growing leguminous forage grown by the rural farmers of Bangladesh mainly for human consumption as 'Dal'. Beside this, in some parts of Bangladesh vigna is also cultivated for livestock feeds mainly in 'Bathan Area' in Sirajgonj district. In winter season vigna is cultivated in Bathan area for free access of high producing milking cows. Vigna is rich in crude protein (19.7 g/100 g DM) and metabolizable energy (9.8 MJ per kg DM) (Khandaker 1998). It also contains a lot of essential nutrients for rumen microbes such as Ca, P, Mg, Na, K, Cu, Mn and Zn which may be very effective nutrients for improving efficiency of utilization of straw based diet in terms of feed digestibility and growth rate of livestock (Azad 1977). Therefore, the present study was undertaken to investigate the effect of different levels of vigna hay supplementation to rice straw-based diet on DM intake, nutrient digestibility and growth rate of indigenous cattle in Bangladesh.

Materials and methods

The experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of different levels of vigna hay supplementation on feed intake, digestibility, and growth rate of indigenous cattle. The experiment was carried out at the Animal Nutrition Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Mymensingh. The experiment was divided into two sections - animal feeding trial and the laboratory analysis. The feeding trial was conducted in the Animal Nutrition Field Laboratory while the laboratory analysis for chemical composition of feeds, faeces was accomplished in the laboratory of the Department of Animal Nutrition, BAU, Mymensingh.

The green vigna plant was harvested in one lot at the preflowering stage and dried under the sun for 3-4 days (80-85% DM) and chopped to maintain a uniform composition during the trial.

Animals, housing and management

Twelve indigenous bull calves having initial average live weight 83.42 kg and about 26 months of age were used in this experiment for a period of 75 days. The animals were housed individually in a well ventilated face-out housing system having concrete floor pens under close observation and appropriate hygienic condition. Average temperature during the experimental period was 27±4°C. Calves were allowed to adapt to uniform diets for a period of 10 days before starting the study. The experimental animals were dewormed with antihelmentic drugs.

Formulation of diets

Feeds used for the experiment were chopped rice straw along with 869 g concentrate mixture as the basal diet and 4 levels of vigna hay: i.e. 0 (VM0), 106 (VM106), 212 (VM212) and 318 (VM318) g DM of vigna hay used as supplementation. The fixed amount of concentrate (869 g/day) was given to each animal on all treatments to fulfill the 50% requirement of nutrients targeted at body weight gain of 300 g/d.

Digestibility trial and sample collection

At the end of 75 days growth study, the apparent digestibility of different proximate components of four experimental diets was determined by a conventional digestion trial for a period of 10 days. The total amount of feed intake and faeces voided by each animal during 24 hours were recorded. Representative samples of different diets and leftovers were collected daily and stored in polythene bags for the analysis of proximate components.

Design and layout of the experiment

Twelve growing bull calves were randomly assigned to four treatments in a completely randomized design having 3 animals each.

The data on the feed intake, digestibility and live weight gain of animals were recorded and analyzed by an ANOVA of completely randomized design with appropriate standard error of mean differences. The least significant difference was used to compare treatment means (Gomez and Gomez 1984). Simple linear regressions of the form Y= a + bx were used where appropriate.

Results

Straw and total DM intakes were increased and live weight gain and feed conversion were improved, by adding Vigna hay to the diets (Table 4; Figures 1 and 2). 

Figure 1: Growth performance of cattle fed increasing levels of Vigna hay	Figure 2: DM feed conversion of cattle fed increasing levels of Vigna hay

The apparent digestibility of all proximate components of the diets were increased by Viga hay supplementation (Table 5).

Discussion

The results indicate that growth rate of cattle fed a rice straw basal diet can be improved with Vigna hay supplementation. Previous studies (Namade and Kukde 1994) have shown a range of daily live weight gain of 264  to 303 g in cattle fed different levels of Sesbania legume tree foliage  The improved growth and feedconversion with increasing levels could be partly due the Vigna leguminous hay prooviding souble protein and minerals for rumen micro-organisms and partly to the escape of the legume protein from the rumen providing increased amounts of metabolizable protein to the animal (Preston and Leng 1987). The results found in the present experiment are strongly in agreement with the findings of Akusu et al (1999) who found higher weight gain in ewe and ram lambs with increasing offewr levels of supplementation with Glircidia sepium legume foliage; and with those of Ahn (1990) who observed significant increases in intake of barley straw when dried gliricidia and Calliandra calothyrsus (Calliandra) foliage were offered as supplements. Pathirana et al (1993) also showed higher straw DM intake with legume supplementation.

The supplementation of crop residues with concentrates or good quality roughage has been reported to improve dry matter digestibility, feed intake and subsequently performance of animals. The beneficial effects of supplementation may be explained by increased fibre digestion as a result of a more adequate supply of protein (Lyons et al 1970; Chowdhury 1996) and minerals (Coombe and Christian 1969) for microbial growth, by improved palatability of crop residues (Han et al 1978) or by an increased nutrient supply to host animals from the supplement.

The results found in the present study were also supported by Bamualim et al (1984)  who stated that legume forage supplementation to low quality roughage diet increased outflow rate of the rumen digesta and thereby increased total DM consumption. The same reason was given by Abdulrazak et al (1996) in explaining the increased intake of total DM among crossbred cattle with the incorporation of graded levels of leucaena and gliricidia. Other researchers (Mosi and Butterworth 1985) also reported that legume hay supplementation to cereal crop residues significantly increased total DM intake by ruminants.

The incease in apparent digestibility of OM, CP, CF and EE with Viga hay supplementation probably reflect the improved rumen environment as a result of improved supply of nutrients to rumen micro-organisms as reported by many researchers (Abdulrazak et al 1996; Masama et al 1997; Minson 1982; Goodchild and McMeniman (1994; Elliot and McMeniman 1987).The increased digestibility of nutrients was also observed by Chriyaa et al (1997) when wheat straw was supplemented with shrub foliage and medic pods and when rice straw was supplemented with leucaena foliage (Chowdhury 1996).

Conclusion

•  Supplementation of rice straw-based diets with increasing levels of Vigna hay resulted in linear improvements in feed intake, apparent diet digestibility, live weight gain and feeed conversion of indigenous cattle.

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Received 17 November 2014; Accepted 7 December 2014; Published 4 February 2015

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