Voluntary intake and digestibility by sheep and goats of whole-plant, leaf and stem fractions of Pennisetum purpureum Schum
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Small Ruminant Research;6(3):217-221
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Compares voluntary feed intake and apparent dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP) and crude fibre (CF) digestibility coefficients of napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum schum) whole-plant and leaf and stem fractions by West African Dwarf (WAD) sheep and goats. Napier grass was cut after 6 weeks of regrowth, oven dried. Herbage was hand separated. Sheep and goats consumed more leaf than whole plant and stem. Daily intake by sheep fed whole plant was higher than fed stem but intake by goats fed whole plant and stem was not. Sheep consumed more leaf and whole-plant than goats. However goats digested crude protein & crude fibre more efficiently than shee Overall DM digestibility of stem was higher than that of leaf and whole-plant.