Nutritional Value and Acceptability of some Selected Forages in the Derived Savanna Zone of Nigeria as Ruminant Feed

A study was conducted in May–July, 2019 to determine the nutritional values of selected forages consumed by ruminants in the derived Savannah zone of Nigeria. The leaves of plant species were separated, identified, washed, screened, air-dried and milled for chemical analyses and in vitro degradability measurement. Three West African Dwarf rams were used to ascertain the acceptability of these forages using cafeteria feeding trial method. Co-efficient of Preference (CoP) was then calculated. The experiment was of a completely randomized design and all data were statistically analyzed. The chemical analyses showed that the crude protein (CP) content of Mangifera indica (13.17%) was higher than Pennisetum purpureum (11.57%), Panicum maximum (9.57%) and Terminalia catappa (8.75%). The NDF of T. catappa (51.58%) was least compared to P. maximum (57.02%) which was the highest while P. maximum (37.10%), P. purpureum (54.66%) and M. indica (37.93%) were statistically (P<0.05) similar. However, P. maximum had the least value of ADF. The assayed macro-minerals concentrations were the highest in T. catappa but it had relatively high levels of phytate, saponin, alkaloids and tannin. At the end of incubation, in vitro gas production by P. maximum (5.00 ml/DM) was the highest compared to other species. Hence, rate of degradation varied. P. maximum was most preferred (with the highest CoP of 1.10) of the forages compared to other test forages. The relatively raised levels of antinutrients in T. catappa could be due to its low acceptability. It could be concluded that the forages had good nutritive value, adequate minerals composition with tolerable anti-nutrients levels and their preferential ranking from Panicum maximum>Pennisetum purpureum>Terminalia catappa>Mangifera indica indicating that they could be suitably recommended as sole or partial feed for ruminants.