In Vivo and in Vitro Digestibility of Four Tropical Grass Species Growing at Ibadan

Abstract

Digestibility trials carried out in November and December, 1971 with twelve West African dwarf ram fed Cynodon nlemfuensis var. robustus; Cynodon nlemfuensis var. nlemfuensis: Pennisetum purpureum Schum; and Panieum maximum, Jacq, each at 4 weeks and 8 weeks of regrowth showed that the differences that may exist between methods and among treatments in organic matter digestibility were not statistically significant (P> 0.05). Similarly, analysis showed no significant differences among animals or between periods within each treatment except for Cynodon  nlemfuensis  var. nlemfuensis where differences between period were significant (P <0.01). There were high positive correlations between in vitro and in vivo organic matter digestibilities as well as between in vitro organic matter digestibility and Total Digestible Nutrients (TDN).  It is suggested that in vitro organic matter digestibility can be used to predict the digestibility of these tropical grass species and, may be, other similar grass species.