The Promising Nutritive Value of Local Grasses Fed to Goat in South Sulawesi Indonesia

The purpose of this research was to examine the digestibility in vivo and in sacco of four selected feed resources. Natural rangelands support and provide feed forlarge number of livestock. It plays a vital role innational economy through provision of animal productsfor local consumption and exports. In vivo experiment was conducted to investigate apparent feed digestibility of the 4 grasses studied namely elephant grass, mini elephant grass, Panicum maximum grass, and BD grass. According to the results of proximate analysis, elephant grass has a higher protein content than the other 3 types of grass. Panicum maxima grass has the least amount of protein. The four grasses had comparable amounts of organic matter, crude fiber, fat, and non-protein nitrogen extract. The results of experiment in vivo indicated that the dry matter feed intake of the feed stuffs was ranging from 1.07kg/head/day for mini elephant grass and 1.42kg/head/day for elephant grass. The average of fecal per head per day was 0.33kg. Analysis of in vivo feed digestibility shown that elephant grass was 70%, mini elephant grass was 60%, Panicum maximum grass was 69%, and Brachiaria decumbens grass was 71%. The statistical analysis of the feed digestibility indicated that the was no any significantly differences (p>0.05) between them. The dry matter (DM) digestibility of elephant grass tended to be higher than that of mini elephant grass, Panicum maximum grass, and BD grass. This might be due to similarity in the content of nutrient in those of 4 grasses. According to the results of an experiment conducted in sacco, elephant grass had a higher washing loss or soluble fraction (a) than Panicum maximal grass, BD grass, and small elephant grass. BD grass has a larger insoluble yet fermentable proportion (b) than other grasses. Mini elephant grass had a higher rate of rumen degradation (c) than elephant grass, Panicum maximum grass, and BD grass. It is clear that high content of soluble fraction in the feed studied does not always followed by high rate of feed degradability, potential degradability, and the peak degradability. It is suggested that by conducting experiment in sacco resulted in more comprehensive information regarding of how the grasses have been degraded and fermented in the rumen of goat.