The Digestibility, Degradation and Index Value of Four Local Feeds for Goat

The objective of this paper was to examine the feed digestibility, rumen degradation and the index value of four types of local feed for goat. The feeds studied were T1 = elephant grass, T2 = field grass, T3 = kolonjono grass and T4 = mango leaves. The rumen degradation were measured using in sacco technique while the consumption and digestibility were measured using in vivo methods. The index value of the feed was determined using the Orskov and Ryle method. Results from in sacco indicated that rumen degradation characteristics of elephant grass and kolonjono grasses were higher (P < 0.05) than that of field grass and mango leaves. The results of in vivo study showed that kolonjono grasses had a higher (P<0.05) feed consumption compared to that of three other feeds. The feed digestibility of mango leaves was lowest compared to the other grasses. The calculated index values of elephant, field and kolonjono grasses and mango leaves were 27.4, 48.13, 69.92 and 39.07, respectively. The overall result of this study confirmed that kolonjono grass tend to have a higher value of rumen degradation, feed digestibility and feed index value. It is concluded that the kolonjono grass was the most readily degradable feed in the rumen of goat compared to the other three types of local feeds.