Livestock Research for Rural Development 14 (2) 2002

http://www.cipav.org.co/lrrd/lrrd14/2/kusm142.htm

Effect of supplementing Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus L) wastes with urea or leaves of Gliricidia sepium on feed intake and digestibility in sheep and steers

Kusmartono

 Department of Animal Nutrition
Faculty of Animal Husbandry, Brawijaya University, Malang, Indonesia
indicus@malang.wasantara.net.id

 

Abstract

Four sheep and four crossbred Ongole steers, fitted with rumen cannulas,  were used in a 4*4 Latin square arrangement to study the effects of N sources (urea or Gliricidia sepium leaves) on intake, digestibility and rumen parameters. For the sheep the diets were: JF,   free access to rice straw and Jackfruit waste; JF-U, same as JF but with 3% urea (DM basis) added to the jack fruit waste; JF-GS,  same as JF but with fresh leaves of Gliricidia sepium at 3% of live weight; JF-U-GS, same as JF-U but with fresh gliricidia leaves at 3% of live weight. For the steers the diets were: JF; JF-A same as JF but with ammoniated rice straw (3% of straw DM); JF-U; and JF-MUC, same as JF but with free access to a soft molasses-urea cake (10% urea).   

Total intakes of dry matter by the sheep and by the steers were not affected by N supplementation. Sheep ate a much greater proportion of the diet in the form of jackfruit waste (92%) than did the cattle (47%). Also, while addition of urea appeared to depress intake of jackfruit waste by sheep, with a compensatory increase in the intake of rice straw, it had no effect on the cattle. For the cattle, treatment of the rice straw with urea did not increase DM intake of the straw.  The main treatment effect with the steers was associated with feeding of the molasses-urea cake which led to increases in intake of total DM and crude protein (CP). Rumen ammonia levels in sheep fed un-supplemented rice straw and jackfruit waste were low (50 mg N/litre) but increased to 101 mg N/litre in the diet with added urea and gliricidia leaves. Higher digestibility values (DM, OM and CP) in sheep receiving N supplementation were directly related to their rumen ammonia concentrations. Molar proportions of rumen propionate increased linearly from 18 to 36% as rumen ammonia levels increased in the sheep.  

It is concluded that jackfruit waste, consisting of aerial, skin, seed and heart parts, has a high potential as a ruminant feed, especially for sheep. Supplementary N is needed to optimise digestibility and, in cattle, it appears this is best given as a molasses-urea cake rather than by mixing urea in the jackfruit waste.

Keywords: Rice straw, jackfruit waste, gliridicia, urea-molasses, intake, digestibility, rumen ammonia

 

Introduction

Rice straw is the major source of feed for ruminants in many tropical countries, especially during the dry season. Providing rice straw alone to animals will only support  a maintenance level of production (Jayasuriya 1979; Wanapat 1984; Ibrahim and Schiere 1985). Therefore, some alternative ways aiming for improving its utilisation have been sought. Examples of these are ammoniation with urea or ammonia gas (Chenost and Kayouli 1997) or supplementing with protein-rich feeds like leaves from trees or shrubs (Ho Quang Do et al 2001; Seng Mom et al 2001). 

The jackfruit tree (Artocarpus heterophyllus L) produces edible fruits and can be grown in  a wide range of climatic conditions and soil types (Nazaruddin and Muchlisah 1994). The total production of jackfruit in East Java was about 153,000 tonnes in 1995 (Anon 1997). Because the harvesting period occurs in different times during the year, jackfruits become available throughout the year, especially in Java island, and this allows the factories to produce jackfruit crackers all year around.  Kusmartono (2001) surveyed five jackfruit cracker factories and reported  that nearly 70% of the jackfruit is  discarded after the fleshy parts are taken out. The jackfruit wastes, which consist of aerial part, skin, seed and heart, have been subjected to in vitro evaluation (reference??). The results showed that this feed resource had high organic matter (OM) digestibility (70-78%), but that the crude protein content was low (6 to 7 % in DM). Therefore, there is a need to supplement nitrogen sources in order to improve the utilisation of RS in its combination with JFW. 

The objectives of the current studies were to evaluate the use of jackfruit waste (JFW), supplemented with either urea or leaves of Gliricidia sepium,  as a complementary feed to rice straw for sheep and steers.
 

Materials and Methods

Experiment 1

Animals and housing

Four male fat-tailed sheep fitted with rumen fistulas, average age of 1.3 years old and initial body weight of 16.6 kg (± 1.03 kg) were put in metabolism cages to measure feed consumption and faecal output.

Treatments and design

The treatments in a 4*4 Latin square arrangement were: 

JF:  Free access to rice straw (RS) and Jackfruit waste (JFW)
JF-U: Same as JF but with 3% urea (DM basis) added to the jack fruit waste
JF-GS: Same as JF but with fresh leaves of Gliricidia sepium at 3% of live weight
JF-U-GS: Same as JF-U but with fresh gliricidia leaves at 3% of live weight

Feed preparation

Rice straw was obtained from paddy fields and transported to Brawijaya University Research Station. It was scattered on the floor for a few days and then hung on  bamboo racks to avoid becoming mouldy until it was used. Jackfruit wastes were taken from factories every three to four days, chopped into pieces approximately 4-5 cm long and half the amount stored in plastic bags. The other half was thoroughly mixed with urea (3% of DM weight of JWF) and stored in plastic bags. Gliricidia leaves were harvested at vegetative stage from plantations surrounding the University.

Experiment 2

Animals and housing

Four crossbred Ongole steers with average age of  11 months and initial body weight of  137±13.8 kg were allocated to individual stalls to measure daily feed consumption and faecal output.

Treatments and design:

The treatments in a 4*4 Latin square arrangement were:

JF:  Free access to rice straw and JFW
JF-A: Same as JF but the rice straw was ammoniated (3% of urea in straw DM)
JF-U: Same as JF but with urea mixed with the JFW at 3% of the DM
JF-MU: Same as JF but with a soft cake of molasses-urea ad libitum

Feed preparation

Rice straw was taken from paddy fields and stored as described earlier. Part of the straw was treated with urea (3% of DM) according the procedure of Wanapat et al (1984), whilst the other part was left untreated. Jackfruit wastes were prepared in the same manner as described in Experiment 1. The soft molasses-urea cake (MUC) was prepared according to the procedure of Ho Quang Do et al (1999) using the following composition (%): molasses 35, rice bran 40, coconut cake meal 10, urea 10 and salt 5. The soft cake was made in a steel frame (15 cm wide x 30 cm long x 5 cm height) that  produced a 2 kg cake. 

Experimental protocol for digestibility study

The experiments were conducted according to the procedure of Harris (1970) with two stages; adaptation and data collection. The adaptation period lasted for 12 up to 14 days for each treatment until the daily intake was constant. The data collection period lasted for 14 days during which daily feed intake, feed refusals and  faeces output were measured. Rumen pH and sampling of rumen liquid for ammonia and VFA measurements were done at day 15 of each period. At 3, 6, 9 and 12 hours after feeding, about 40 ml rumen fluid were aspirated from each animal through the rumen cannula,  by inserting a probe attached to a syringe.  Five ml of rumen liquid was centrifuged at 4000 rpm for 15 minutes and the supernatant stored in a deep freezer (–18^oC) until used analysis of ammonia and volatile fatty acids (VFA). Samples of feed offered, feed refusals and faeces were taken every day from each animal in each period. The samples were bulked for the same animal in each period. Sub-samples of feed offered, feed refusals and faeces were then stored in deep freezer at –18^oC until used for chemical analysis.

Laboratory analysis

Samples of feed offered, feed refusals and faeces (Experiments 1 and 2) were analysed for dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM) and crude protein (CP) according to procedures of AOAC (1984). Rumen ammonia was analysed using the microdiffusion Conway method, whilst determination of  VFA proportions followed the method described by Preston (1995). 

Statistical analysis

The in data in both experiments were subjected to statistical analysis for Latin square designs following the procedure of Steel and Torrie (1980).
 

Results and discussion

Chemical composition of feeds 

The DM content of the rice straw was low (30.8 and 33.5% in experiments 1 and 2), as a consequence of harvesting coinciding with the end of the rainy season. Values for OM and CP in the straw were similar to those reported by Chuzaemi (1994), which were 77.7 and  5.6 %, respectively. Dry matter and OM contents of JFW were not significantly changed by the addition of urea but CP was increased by 7.2 percentage units, from 8.6 to 15.8% in DM. The CP content of the JFW used in the current study (8.6%) was slightly higher than the 7.3% reported by Kusmartono (2001). The  OM and CP contents of gliricidia leaves (91.7 and 26.2 %, respectively) were similar to those reported by previous researchers (see Pathirana and Ærskov 1995;  Keir et al 1997;  Seijas et al 1994; Orden et al 2000).

Feed intake

Total intakes of dry matter by the sheep were not affected by the treatments (Table 2). However, adding urea to the JFW decreased the intake of JFW while intake of rice straw increased, indicating that the addition of urea decreased the acceptability of the JFW.   The intake of gliricidia leaves (69 g DM/day) was less than the amount offered (110 g DM/day) for treatment JF-GS, but equalled the amount offered on treatment JF-GS-U. The difference between the two treatments  was that JF-GS-U had additional urea added to the jackfruit waste which resulted in a higher rumen ammonia level (101 vs 74 mg N/litre; Table 5). Norton (1994) suggested that that it was necessary to wilt the gliricidia leaves before feeding, to eliminate the odour caused by the compound “coumarin”. Similarly, Makkar (1993) reported that wilting or drying decreased the HCN content in gliricidia leaves and that this improved the acceptance of this forage to the animals. Kusmartono (1984) reported that the provision of gliricidia leaves in dried form (hay) eliminated the problem due to HCN and this improved their consumption.    

 

 In the experiment with the steers, the effects of adding urea to the JFW were similar to what was observed with the sheep, namely a depression in the intake of FJW and a compensatory increase in the intake of rice straw. In contrast to almost all reports in the literature (Chenost and Kayouli 1998), ammoniation of the rice straw did not increase DM intake of the straw.  The main treatment effect in this experiment was associated with feeding of the molasses-urea cake which led to increases in total DM and CP. 

 

Sheep versus cattle

The experiments were not designed to compare the two species in their responses to the basal diets and to N supplementation. Nevertheless, there were marked differences between them in the relative intakes of rice straw and jackfruit waste when these were offered on a free choice basis (Figure 1). Sheep ate a much greater proportion of the diet in the form of jackfruit waste than did the cattle. Also, while addition of urea appeared to depress intake of jackfruit waste by sheep it had no effect on the cattle.

Figure 1: Proportion of diet dry matter consumed as jackfruit waste in sheep and cattle having
 free access to jackfruit waste and rice straw, with and without urea added to the jackfruit waste

 

Digestibility of the diets

Apparent digestibility of DM, OM and CP were highest when the diets of the sheep contained urea (mixed with the jackfruit waste) and fresh leaves of Gliricidia sepium. There were no differences among diets fed to the steers in digestibility of DM and OM but CP digestibility was highest for the diet with the molasses-urea cake (Table 4). There was a tendency for DM and OM digestibility by sheep to increase as crude protein intake increased (Tables 2 and 4), but no such trend was observed with the steers (Tables 3 and 4).

Rumen parameters

Rumen ammonia concentrations in the sheep increased significantly due to N supplementation (Table 5) and were directly related with the total daily intake of crude protein (Figure 2). Rumen ammonia levels on un-supplemented rice straw and jackfruit waste were only slightly above the minimum concentration of 50 mg N/litre, considered necessary (Satter and Slayter 1974) for microbial growth,  and even the highest level in the diet with added urea and gliricidia leaves (101 mg N/litre) was only half that needed for optimum fibre digestion and feed intake (200 mg N/litre) according to Preston and Leng (1987) and Ærskov (1992). 

There is no obvious explanation for the increase in the molar proportions of propionic and butyric acids and the  decrease in acetic, as the intake of crude protein increased (as did the level of rumen ammonia), especially as rumen pH varied little within the range of 6.28 to 6.48.  The proportion of the diet dry matter consumed as jackfruit waste, which was the most likely substrate for propionic acid-producing bacteria, tended to decrease (0.92, 0.84, 0.77 and 0.78 of total dry matter intake) as the proportion of propionate increased.

 

Figure 2: Relationship between intake of crude protein and rumen ammonia concentration in sheep
fed rice straw and jackfruit waste with or without urea and / or a supplement of leaves of Gliricidia

 

 Conclusions

It can be concluded that:

• Jackfruit wastes consisting of aerial, skin, seed and heart parts have a high palatability as ruminant feed, particularly for sheep.

• When jackfruit waste is fed together with rice straw, supplementary nitrogen is needed to increase rumen ammonia levels and DM intake

• The best strategy for providing the nitrogen source appears to be in the form of a soft cake containing molasses and urea.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge the financial support of the International Foundation for Science (IFS) Sweden. Scientific advice from Dr  E R Orskov, Dr T R Preston and D Metha Wanapat during the experiment is gratefully acknowledged. Dr Preston was very helpful in the editing of this manuscript..
 

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 Received 9 September 2001