Influence of moisture variability on nutritive contents of herbaceous legumes for utilization in dairy production

Abstract

The aim of the experiment was to analyze the seasonal variations on the nutritive composition of two herbaceous legumes; Dolichos rongai (DR) and Commander chicory (CC) across two sub-seasons (early and late rain) planted on the pastureland of Bowen University, Iwo. Leaf samples were collected twice in each month to make six (6) replicates for each legume. Proximate analysis; moisture, ash, crude-fiber (CF), ether-extract (EE), crude-protein (CP) and Nitrogen-free-extract (NFE) and the chemical composition; neutral-detergent-fibre (NDF), acid-detergent-fibre (ADF), acid-detergent-lignin (ADL) and metabolizable-energy (ME) were carried out in the analytical laboratory. Moisture (%) was significantly higher for DR in early-rain (52.06%) and late-rain (39.42%), these values were lower and in contrast for CC which had higher value in late-rain (18.65%) but lower value (7.23%) in the early-rain. Higher value for CP% in CC (4.46%) while DR was 3.15% CP in the early-rain. The CP% values were p <0.05 higher in the early-rain as compared to late-rain. CC had the higher value for ME (2980kcal/kg) values were p <0.05 higher in early-rain as compared to late-rain (1612 kcal/kg), this was in contrast for DR with p <0.05 lower value during the early-rain (1459 kcal/kg) as compared to late-rain (2064 kcal/kg). The analysed values for CF (%) and ash (%) were higher in the late-rain. Summarily, there were variations in nutrient composition of the herbaceous legume in the rainy sub-seasons. Feeding trials is further recommended to validate these findings.