Use of the gas production technique to determine the kinetics of fermentation of selected browse pods

Abstract

Abstract provided by author

A study was conducted to document the digestibility of selected browse pods using the in vitro gas production method in Epukiro and Otjinene constituencies of Omaheke region, Namibia. The selected browse pods had the crude protein (CP) (mean of 16.7 and 17.3 on DM basis) content ranging from 12.8 to 19.9 and 11.7 and 22.0 for Epukiro and Otjinene respectively. The organic matter digestibility (OMD) ranged from 56.1 to 65.7 and 59.3 to 64.3 for Epukiro and Otjinene respectively, making the browse pods moderately digestible and accepted in ruminant nutrition. The gas production volumes were highest in D. cinerea from Otjinene making it the highly digestible, which negatively correlate with its high total condensed tannin levels. A. erioloba pods from both the two constituencies, however, had the second highest gas production volumes within 96 hours. It was, therefore, concluded that though both the browse pods are moderately digestible, the farmers in these areas are recommended to use A. erioloba pods since not only is it highly digestible but it also had high CP and metabotisabie energy contents.