An investigation on chemical/mineral compositions, ruminal microbial fermentation, and feeding value of some leaves as alternative forages for finishing goats during the dry season

AMB Express

Table 4 The gas test parameters, ME, NEl, true nutrient digestibility, MMY, and PF measured for some leaves

Item	Leaf							SEM	p-value
Item	Quince	Pear	Olive	Mirabelle plum	Greengage	Sour cherry	Persimmon	SEM	p-value
gas 12 h (mL)	27.06^b	27.20^b	26.10^bc	35.23^a	36.16^a	32.16^a	21.93^c	1.03	< 0.001
gas 24 h (mL)	36.70^b	33.60^b	34.63^b	44.83^a	48.30^a	37.13^b	36.73^b	0.86	< 0.001
gas 48 h (mL)	47.50^bc	37.90^d	47.30^bc	52.77^a	51.30^ab	44.83^c	44.93^c	0.96	< 0.001
gas 72 h (mL)	51.60^ab	40.80^c	51.13^b	55.67^a	52.53^ab	48.50^b	50.47^b	0.93	< 0.001
gas 96 h (mL)	53.03^abc	42.03^d	52.50^abc	57.20^a	55.20^ab	49.80^c	51.36^bc	1.07	< 0.001
b (mL)	52.36^ab	39.65^d	51.48^abc	55.32^a	52.18^ab	47.29^c	50.69^bc	0.94	< 0.001
c (%/h)	0.055^d	0.104^b	0.057^d	0.081^c	0.125^a	0.088^c	0.054^d	0.003	< 0.001
ME (MJ/kg DM)	7.94^c	7.48^d	7.92^c	9.17^b	9.73^a	8.16^c	8.29^c	0.12	< 0.001
NEl (MJ/kg DM)	4.56^c	4.24^d	4.56^c	5.42^b	5.81^a	4.70^c	4.78^c	0.09	< 0.001
TDMD (g/kg DM)	679.18^c	644.91^c	666.65^c	808.25^ab	824.56^a	786.77^b	657.03^c	7.37	< 0.001
TOMD (g/kg DM)	690.33^b	660.73^b	689.67^b	820.67^a	831.50^a	801.17^a	684.83^b	8.27	< 0.001
MMY (mg)	38.50^c	37.33^c	38.10^c	61.80^a	63.27^a	49.17^b	38.33^c	1.49	< 0.001
PF	3.53b^c	3.02^d	3.33^cd	3.87^ab	4.15^a	3.91^ab	3.29^cd	0.08	< 0.001

Means with different letters within the same row are significantly different according to p-value indicated
gas 12, 24, 48, 72, and 96 h cumulative gas production after 12, 24, 48, 72, and 96 h incubation; b potential gas production; c fractional rate of gas production
ME metabolism energy, NEl net energy for lactation, TDMD true dry matter digestibility, TOMD true organic matter digestibility, MMY microbial mass yield, PF partitioning factor (mg TOMD/mL 24 h gas production), SEM standard error of the mean