The evaluation of nutrient quality of ramie leaves silage and hay in complete mixed ration for Etawah-Crossbreed goat using in vitro technique

The evaluation of nutrient quality of ramie leaves silage and hay in
complete mixed ration for Etawah-Crossbreed goat using in vitro
technique
Despal*, Hutabarat, I.M.L., Mutia, R. and Permana, I.G.
Faculty of Animal Science, Bogor Agricultural University
despal@ipb.ac.id

Abstract
A research have been conducted to evaluate the effect of ramie leaves silage
and hay in Etawah Crossbreed (PE) goat complete mixed ration (CMR) on nutrient
content, fermentability, and digestibility by in vitro. There were seven CMR dietary
treatments i.e. P0 (control ration) = 50% napier grass + 50% concentrate, P1 = 30%
napier grass + 20% ramie leaves silage + 50% concentrate, P2 = 20% napier grass +
30% ramie leaves silage + 50% concentrate, P3 = 10% napier grass + 40% ramie
leaves silage + 50% concentrate, P4 = 30% napier grass + 20% ramie leaves hay +
50% concentrate, P5 = 20% napier grass + 30% ramie leaves hay + 50% concentrate,
and P6 = 10% napier grass + 40% hay + 50% concentrate. Both ramie leaves silage
and hay increased the CMR digestibility and nutrient content, except the crude fiber.
Control ration had a higher crude fiber than silage and hay. The CMR which contain
ramie leaves silage (40%) had higher nutrient digestibilities compared to the other
rations. Rations which were added with ramie leaves silage (P1 – P3) had a higher

VFA concentration compared to the other rations. Ammonia concentration of rations
added with preserved ramie leaves were lower than control, however ammonia
concentration in all treatments were in optimal range. Acetate proportion was higher
in CMR which contain ramie leaves hay than CMR which contain silage and the
nutrients digestibilities were lower. Adding ramie leaves silage in rations resulted
higher propionate and butyrate proportion than control and rations which added with
ramie leaves hay. Either silage or hay ramie leaves can be used up to 40% as Napier
grass substitute in the PE CMR.

Keywords: Etawah goat, hay, ramie leaves, silage

Introductions

Ramie leaves are byproduct from ramie (Boehmeria nivea) plantation that
produced fiber for textile raw materials. Currently, ramie plantations are widely
expanded in Garut and Wonosobo regencies. The previous research showed that

ramie leaves contained all major nutrients which were needed by animal (Duarte et
al., 1997). Sufficiently high crude protein content (20%) and crude fibre (16%)
exhibited that ramie leaves could be used as forage to fulfill dairy nutrient

requirement like PE goat. Despal (2007) explained that supplementation of dried
ramie leaves until 33% in ration based on field grass prevented sheep losing body
weight loss during dry season and gave positive growth.
Ramie leaves available periodically depend on stem harvest at 25 – 40 days
interval. Harvesting occur at the same time and in great quantity. Each hectare of
ramie plantation could produce forages up to 300 ton fresh material/year (FAO,
2005) or equivalent to 42 ton dry matter. Preservation of ramie leaves was necessary
so that ramie leaves could be utilized more efficiently and being used as animal daily
feed.
General preservations of forages are wet (silage) and dry (hay) preservations.
Each technique has advantages and disadvantages. Drying with open sun drying
technique is a cheap forage conserving method. However, forage excess generally
occur at rainy season so there is a needed for technology to handle the constraint.
Whereas wet preservation (silage) is hampered by low water soluble carbohydrate
(WSC) and high water content that may produce a low quality of silage.
According to Despal and Permana (2008), ramie leaves dried by greenhouse
technique produced better quality of hay than drying by open sun drying and oven
technique. Adding dried cassava 20% (w/w) in silage ramie leaves produced better
quality of silage than silage which were added with corn and pollard. The quality of
preserved ramie leaves needed to be tested in ration.

The objective of the research was to study preserved ramie leaves using wet
and dry preservation as grass substitute in PE goat ration and their effect on nutrient
content, fermentability and in vitro digestibility.

Materials and Methods
This research was conducted from November 2008 to March 2009 at
Agrostology Laboratory, Dairy Animal Nutrition Laboratory, Department of
Nutrition and Feed Technology, Faculty of Animal Science, Bogor Agricultural

University, Laboratory of Inter University Center, Bogor Agricultural University,
and Laboratory of Nutrition Physiology, Animal Research Center, Ciawi.
Ramie leaves were obtained from Koperasi Pondok Pesantren (Koppontren)
Darusalam, Garut Regency. As many as 2 kg of ramie leaves, that was chopped into
a length of approximately 1,5 – 2 cm using forage chopper, added with 400 grams of
dried cassava to make the silage. Silage was stored in plastic (28 x 50 cm) and
rewrapped with plastic and polybag (60 x 120 cm) to avoid light intervention. Silages
were incubated anaerobically for 35 days. After 35 days, silages were dried, ground,
and mixed in ration. Hay was made by drying ramie leaves in greenhouse for 21
hours under intensive light and the hay was twisted every 2 hours. After 21 hours
light intensities, hay was ground and mixed in ration. The forage which used in

ration was napier grass whereas the concentrate consisted of corn, pollard, rice bran,
pressed coconut cake, dried cassava, CaCO3, and DCP. Chemical composition of
ingredients which were used in complete mixed ration was appeared in Table 1.
Table 1. Ingredients and its Chemical Composition
No.

Feed Ingredient

DM

Ash

CP

EE

CF

TDN

Ca

P

--------------------- (%) ---------------------1.

Ramie hay

90.43

21.57

14.02

3.70

13.09

52.79

4.65 2.18

2.

Ramie silage

90.10

17.90

10.20

4.41

11.10

62.30

3.98 0.17

3.

Napier grass

22.20

12.00

8.69

2.71

32.30

52.40

0.48 0.35

4.

Rice bran

87.70

13.60

13.00

8.64

13.90

67.90

0.09 1.39

5.

Pollard

88.50

5.90

18.50

3.86

9.80

69.20

0.23 1.10

6.
7.
8.

Pressed coconut cake
Corn

Dried cassava

88.60
86.80
79.50

8.20
2.20
4.70

21.30
10.80
2.60

10.90
4.28
7.00

14.20
3.50

5.70

78.70
80.80
78.50

0.17 0.62
0.23 0.41
0.17 0.09

Complete ration was mixed appropriately according to formula (Table 2).
Complete ration was formulated based on the nutrient requirement of lactating PE
having 30 kg BW and produce 1 kg milk/d (4% FCM). The ration contained 66.5%
TDN, 11.17% CP, 0.41% Ca, and 0.29% P (NRC, 1981).
Nutrients content, i.e. dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), crude fibre (CF),
ether extract (EE), and ash were analyzed according to AOAC (1999). Fermentability
and in vitro digestibility were determined as described by Tilley and Terry (1969),

NH3 Analysis was conducted according to General Laboratory Procedure (1966), and
partial VFA were analyzed with gas chromatography using Chrompack method
(1998).
Data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SPSS 17
procedure. Significant differences between individual means were identified using
Duncan’s multiple tests.
Table 2. Formula of Dietary Treatments in Research
Feed Ingredient
Ramie hay
Ramie silage
Napier grass
Rice bran
Pollard
Pressed coconut cake
Corn
Dried cassava
CaCO
3

DCP
TDN
PK
Ca
P

P0

P1

P5

P6

0
0
50
10
10.39
7.32
18
3.94

P2
P3
P4
----------------- (%) ----------------0
0
0
20
20
30
40
0
30
20
10
30
10
12
7.87
10
17.67
17.85
23.16
15.64
11.8
13.67
15.09
5
9.03
5
3
13.09
0
0
0
10

30
0
20
10
19.74
5
7.04
10

40
0
10
10
18.42
5
5
15

0.35
0
66.5
12
0.41
0.561

1
0.5
66.5
12
1.518
0.614

0
0
66.5
12
1.558
0.455

0
0
66.5
12
1.982
0.436

1
0.5
66.91
12
1.879
0.635

0.38
0.5
68
12
2
0.589

1
0.28
66.5
12
1.584
0.462

Results and Discussions

Nutrient Composition of Complete Ration
Proximate composition of the complete ration is presented on Table 3.
Statistical analysis showed that nutrient composition among treatments ration were
significantly different (P0.05).
Table 4: Fermentability of complete ration
Perlakuan
P0

VFA (mM/L))*
Acetate Propionate Isobutyrate Butyrate Isovalerate Total
26,25
4,44
0,62
2,67
0,32
34,30

NH3
(mM/L)
11,46

P1
P2
P3
P4
P5
P6

26,31
27,74
24,78
22,57
25,27
18,42

5,47
6,56
6,38
4,57
4,13
3,20

0,37
0,58
0,39
0,52
0,47
0,31

3,16
3,75
3,65
2,93
2,37
2,31

0,31
0,40
0,27
0,15
0,19
0,11

35,62
39,03
35,47
30,74
32,43
24,35

10,30
10,62
9,67
8,42
9,70
8,94

According to Sutardi (1980), the optimal range of ration VFA was 80-160
mM. Total VFA that yielded in this study was so low compared to range of VFA that
was needed for the optimal growth of rumen microorganism. This was because of the
different measurement method, in case on this research VFA was measured by GC,
whereas on Sutardi (1980), the measurement was done using steam destilation. The
low values of VFA on measurement using GC were also found by Despal (2005);
Madrid et al., (1999); and McCullough and Sisk (1972). On steam distillation
methods, all volatile substances are counted as VFA, but not in VFA measured using
GC.
Ration containing hay was less fermentable than ration containing silages.
This was because of microorganism activity on the ensilage helped digesting the
feedstuffs and caused silage in the rumen system more fermentable. The same result
was also found by Schingoethe et al. (1976).
Acetic acid was present in greatest amount and the proportion of propionic
acid usually exceeded that of butyric (Balch and Rowland, 1956). Acetate
proportions to total VFA of the respective rations were 76.5%; 73.9%; 71.1%;
69.9%; 73.4%, 77.9% and 75.6%. The use of silage (P1 – P3) gave a lower acetate
proportion than control. The higher use of silage on ration, the lower acetate
proportion was. This was because of the lower content of CF in silage containing
ration compare to control (McCullough and Sisk, 1972). The use of hay on certain
level might reduce acetate proportion, however not as much as on silage. On the use
of hay as much as 30%, acetate proportion was seen higher compared to control. The
high proportion of acetate on the use of hay can be found on Esdale et al. (1968).
Ammonia was the main source of nitrogen to synthesize the microorganism’s
protein, so its concentration on rumen was a case that had to be observed (Satter and
Slyter, 1974). According to McDonald et al. (2002), the range of NH3 optimal
concentration to synthesize the rumen microorganism’s protein was 6 – 21 mM. The

NH3 that yielded from protein fermentation on the experimental rations were on
optimal range for the growth of livestock and not excessive.
Digestibility was an early indication on the availability of nutrients in certain
feed to livestock (Yusmadi, 2008). The influence on hay-added and silage-added to
ration on in vitro digestibility is shown on Table 5. Statistical analysis resulted that
ration treatment highly influential (P