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 7 The effects of diets containing different leaves on nutrient digestibility and growth performance of goats

Item	Treatment								SEM	p-value
Item	Control	Quince	Pear	Olive	Mirabelle plum	Greengage	Sour cherry	Persimmon	SEM	p-value
DMI (g/day)	979^d	977^d	973^d	971^d	1045^b	1087^a	1003^c	0.973^d	0.008	< 0.001
Initial BW (kg)	19.14	19.10	19.21	19.21	19.38	19.19	19.06	19.09	0.69	0.97
Final BW (kg)	28.42^bc	28.70^bc	27.21^c	28.06^c	29.69^ab	30.55^a	28.75^bc	28.37^bc	0.48	0.001
ADG (kg/day)	0.114^bc	0.120^abc	0.100^c	0.111^bc	0.129^ab	0.142^a	0.121^abc	0.116^abc	0.009	0.05
Nutrient digestibility (%)
DM	64.33^bc	64.11^cd	63.72^cd	63.39^d	65.04^ab	65.42^a	65.06^ab	64.40^bc	0.28	< 0.001
NDF	40.90^bc	39.00^d	41.30^abc	39.14^d	42.16^ab	42.57^a	42.02^abc	40.48^cd	0.52	< 0.001
CP	67.51^bc	67.48^bc	66.36^cd	65.70^d	68.93^b	70.80^a	68.61^b	67.36^bc	0.53	< 0.001
OM	67.16^cd	67.10^cd	66.06^d	66.11^d	68.86^ab	70.12^a	68.39^bc	66.94^cd	0.47	< 0.001
EE	50.42^fg	49.91^g	52.90^cd	55.46^a	52.08^de	51.43^ef	53.86^bc	54.88^ab	0.49	< 0.001

Means with different letters within the same row are significantly different according to p-value indicated
Control basal diet containing alfalfa hay and corn silage, DMI dry matter intake, BW body weight, ADG average daily gain, DM dry matter, NDF neutral detergent fiber, CP crude protein, OM organic matter, EE ether extract, SEM standard error of the mean