FAO ANIMAL PRODUCTION AND HEALTH PAPER 139 Tree foliage in ruminant nutrition Contents

by
R.A.Leng
Department of Animal Science
University of New England
Armidale, New South Wales
Austalia

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

M-23
ISBN 92-5-104086-9

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the proir permission of the copyright owner. Applications for such permission, with a statement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction, should be addressed to the Director, Information Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Viale delle terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, italy.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome, 1997
©FAO

Foreword

The required intensification of production to satisfy the increasing demand for milk and meat needs to be achieved by environmentally friendly technology that does not prevent future generations in meeting their requirements. In this context, maximising agricultural outputs by increasing the efficiencies of capturing solar energy per unit of the transformation into the food chain appear as logical strategies.

Multipurpose trees can make a significant contribution to agricultural systems by providing a variety of useful products, including valuable forage and wood. The feeding value of low quality agricultural residues and tropical grasses can be greatly improved by foliage from leguminous trees, which can be grown integrated directly to pastures, in fences and in the so called “protein banks”. In mixed farming areas, the tree-strata concept significantly raises the overall photosynthetic capacity of the agricultural system by enlarging the leaf-area index and favouring nutrient enrichment and recycling. In some cases, pure stands of forage shrubs and trees can be the best option to intensify animal production replacing traditional low performing grass—based systems.

In general, it is now clear that agricultural production in the tropics, and animal production in particular, should be based, whenever possible, on systems with trees, that try to simulate the original multi—strata plant communities.

The purpose of this valuable documents is to provide the scientific basis for the contribution of legume tree foliages to ruminant production, particularly from the points of view of their overall high nutritive value, and positive effects on rumen function, microbial yields and body metabolism, and to encourage livestock experts and producers to consider the inclusion of forage legume trees in ruminant production systems.

T. fujita
Director
Animal Production and Health Division

This publication was typeset by William Bennett of the Department of Animal Science, University of New England, using L^AT_EX 2_ε on a Digital Equipment Corporation System 600 5/333, running Digital Unix 3.2.

Acknowledgements

The encyclopaedic knowledge of T_EX and L^AT_EX and the patience—above all, the patience— of Piet van Oostrum, University Lecture in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Utrecht.

Ms Aracelis Díaz Hernández,from the Facultad de Agronomia at the Universidad Central de Venezuela supplied the photographs for Figures 4.5 on page 61,4.7 on page 65 and 5.2 on page 81. these came from her Doctor of Philosophy thesis, at the time in preparation.

Professor James Rowe, Head of the Department of Animal Science at the University of New England, allowed the facilities of the Department to be used in the preparation of the book.

Hyperlinks to non-FAO Internet sites do not imply any official endorsement of or responsibility for the opinions, ideas, data or products presented at these locations, or guarantee the validity of the information provided. The sole purpose of links to non-FAO sites is to indicate further information available on related topics.

Contents

1. Trees-components of farming systems

1.1. Introduction

1.2. Feed resources available for ruminant production in developing countries

1.3. Overview: the potential uses of tree foliages

1.4. Tree foliage as ruminant feeds—perspectives and properties

1.5. Trees in the agricultural ecosystem

1.6. Tree foliage as basal feed or a supplements to other foliages

2.  Background nutrition, digestive physiology and metabolism of ruminants

2.1. Introduction

2.2. Forage/feed resources in developing countries

2.3. Animal productivity from forage resources in the tropics 

2.3.1. Effects if high heat load on animal production

2.4. Improving rminant production on low digestibility forages

2.5. Rumen digestive physiology

2.6. Mictobial growth in the rumen

2.6.1. Requirements for amino acids by rumen microbes

2.6.2. Inefficiencies of microbial growth

2.6.3. Inefficiency, microbial growth and heat generation in the rumen

2.7. The effects of specific nutrient deficiencies on rumen microbes

2.7.1 Recent studies on the effects of ammonia levels on digestibility of forage and microbial growth efficiency in the rumen

2.8. Overview of microbial growth efficiency

2.8.1. Strategies to alter P/E ratio in the nutrients absorbed by ruminants

2.8.2. Manipulating P/E ratios using bypass protein supplements

2.9. Feeding standards-are they applicable to forage diets?

2.10. Role of fodder trees in the nutrition of ruminants

3. Balancing nutrition to maximize forage utilization

3.1. Concepts of balanced nutrition

3.2. Meeting nutritional requirements of ruminants with appropriate supplements

3.3. Supplying the rumen microbes with ammonia

3.4. Some examples of the value of multinutrients in cattle given forage based diets

3.4.1. Effects of supplementation with urea/molasses/multinutrient blocks (MUMB) on cattle production

3.4.2. Effects of multinutrient mixes on growth rates and milk yield of cattle

3.4.3. Effects of MUMB on reproduction of cattle, sheep and goats

3.4.4. Conclusions on reproductive efficiency

3.5. Conclusions on the use of supplements that provide critically deficient nutrients

3.6. Crude protein requirements of ruminants

3.7. Application of the new feeding strategies based on balancing nutrients

3.7.1. Major applications of balanced nutrition in developing animal production systems

3.8. Availability of bypass protein meals 

3.9. Identification of bypass protein sources

4. Potential roles of tree fodders in ruminant nutrition

4.1. Introduction

4.2. Anti-nutritional and nutritionally beneficial aspects of tannins in forages

4.3. Effects of tannins on rumen function

4.4. Tannin in plant foliage

4.5. Tannin mobilization

4.6. The implications of tannin build-up in foliage

4.7. Tannins in the rumen

4.8. Other secondary plant compounds in fodder trees

4.9. Comparisons of tree foliages and multinutrient blocks as supplements to ruminants fed poor quality feeds

4.10. Tree foliage as supplements to pasture or other low quality forages

4.11. Improvements in productivity of cattle from supplementation with tree foliage

4.12. Responses of cattle to supplementation of forage based diets with tree foliage

4.13. Evidence for tree foliages as sources of rumen ammonia and minerals

4.14. Foliage of fodder trees as mineral supplements

4.15. Tree foliage as potential sources of bypass proteins

4.16. Nutritional ecology of ruminants

4.17. Overall

4.18. Conclusions on the use of trees as fodder for ruminants

5. Bypass proteins from tree foliages

5.1. Introduction

5.2. Natural protection of leaf proteins

5.3. Effects of drying fodder tree foliage

5.4. Effects of adding chemicals

5.5. Tree foliages as supplements or as basal diets

5.6. High density forage production from Leucaena

5.7. Assaying the nutritional value of protein in leaf foliages or meals

5.8. Conclusions

5.9. Postscript

6. Bibliography

List of Figures

List of Tables