Chemical Composition of Woody Species at Browsed Caatinga under Different Forage Allowance

Native rangelands are essential for Brazilian livestock production in the northeast Caatinga because they are abundant and inexpensive. Greater knowledge of nutritive values of these native plants is a needed because they fit well in prevailing edapho-climatic conditions. The chemical composition of plants, however, may differ according to ontogeny, elevation, soil, climate, plant community and human actions. Caatinga plants usually have high crude protein (CP) although some of this is fiber-bound (Santos et al., 2009). Browse can therefore become a key livestock diet component. Condensed tannins (CT) in browse can provide benefits, including anthelmintic activity greater amino acid absorption, synthesis of microbiological protein and reduction in methane emission when consumed at 20 to 50 g kg-1 dry matter (DM) (Littlefield et al., 2011; Muir, 2011). Above those levels, animals may suffer negative consequences because of the strong linkage with enzymes, metal ions and carbohydrates although browsers can neutralize CT via salivary proline (Naumann et al., 2013). The objective of this study was to estimate the chemical composition of commonly browsed Caatinga woody species in four forage allowances

Leaf Epidermal Descriptors of Forage from Caatinga, NE Brazil

In the Brazilian semi-arid region, the predominant vegetation is the Caatinga, which has a diversity of plant species, some endemic and presenting forage potential. The characterization of the plant anatomy is important for animal diet studies, using a microhistological technique (Scott and Dahl 1980) for estimating the diet botanical composition from ruminant faeces. This paper determined leaf epidermal descriptors for Caatinga species using microscopic slides

Chemical composition of hays of the Caatinga shrub legumes mororó and sabiá from different parts of the plant

Native forages are important feed sources in the northeastern semi-arid region of Brazil. The objective of this study was to evaluate the chemical characteristics of hays made from the native shrub legumes, sabiá (Mimosa caesalpiniifolia Benth.) and mororó [Bauhinia cheilantha (Bong.) Steud.], using different plant fractions, leaves only or leaves plus twigs. Analyses carried out were: concentrations of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), ether extract (EE), ash, total digestible nutrients (TDN) and non-fiber carbohydrates (NFC). Sabiá leaf hay contained greater CP concentration (182 g/kg DM) than mororó leaf hay (126 g/kg DM) but hay made from leaf plus twigs showed similar CP for both legumes (mean 106 g/kg DM). Concentrations of NDF (368 g/kg DM), NFC (418 g/kg DM) and TDN (481 g/kg DM) of mororó leaf hay were superior to those of sabiá leaf hay (465, 258 and 311 g/kg DM, respectively). The findings suggest that these native legumes can be conserved as hay during the growing season to provide a supplementary feed with acceptable nutritive value for feeding during the period of inadequate feed availability and quality in semi-arid Brazil. However, more samples from a range of growth stages and locations are needed to confirm these preliminary findings and to provide data on possible yields, while more feeding studies with ruminants are needed to confirm the preliminary data in terms of liveweight performance