The Evaluation of Chemical Composition and Dry Matter Degradability of Prosopis farcta Fruit using in situ Nylon Bag Technique

ABSTRACT: The evaluation of foodstuffs provides the animal nutritionists with necessary information to adjust the diet from a physiological and economic point of view, so that the animal performance be desirable. Nowadays, there are various methods for evaluating ruminant feed intake. One of the most important methods is in situ nylon bag technique. Prosopis farcta is one of plants which is used as forage for livestoke feed in Sistan-Baluchistan province. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the nutritive value of Prosopis farcta fruit using in situ nylon bag technique. In the present experiment, the dry matter degradability (DMD), organic matter degradability (OMD), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) of the Prosopis farcta fruit were measured using in situ nylon bag technique on two native Sistani rumen fistulaed male cattledry matter degradability was measured using at incubation times of 0, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h. The results showed that the crude protein, organic matter, crude fat, NDF and ADF was 9.97, 94.29, 1.84, 40.37 and 34.37 percent, respectively. The dry matter degradability (DMD), fast degradation (a), digestible particles over the time (b), potential degradability (a + b) and effective degradability (ED) were measured at 57.05, 18.62, 38.63, 57.26 and 38.85 percent, respectively at incubation time of 96 h. The results showed that Prosopis farcta fruit has a desirable nutritive value and can be considered as a part of the forage needs in ruminant nutrition.