Ladeira et al., 2002. Rev. Bras. Zootec., 31 (6): 2350-2356

Six sheep were used to evaluate intake and total apparent digestibilities of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), total carbohydrates (CHO), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), non fibrous carboidratos (NFC), acid detergent fiber (ADF), cellulose (CEL), hemicellulose (HCEL) and energy of Arachis pintoi hay. Nitrogen balance was also determined. Animals were kept in metabolic cages and received A. pintoi hay plus mineral salt. The Arachis pintoi was harvested with approximately 100 days. The supply of the hay was ad libitum with 20% allowed refusals. The experiment had 15 days of adaptation period and five days for sampling of hay, refusals, feces and urine samples. Chromium oxide was used as external marker to estimate fecal production. The intake of DM and OM of A. pintoi was 90.17 and 85.67 g/kg0.75, respectively. The crude protein, total digestible nutrients (TDN) and metabolizable energy (EM) were, respectively, 14.3%, 66.4% and 2.0 Mcal/kg DM. The nitrogen (N) balance was 12.1 g/day and represented 40.2% of total intake N. The total apparent digestibilities of DM, OM, CP, EE, CHO, NDF, NFC, ADF, CEL, HCEL and energy were 64.4, 68.4, 70.0, 63.4, 68.2, 53.6, 93.3, 47.2, 62.8, 66.8 and 63.7%, respectively. The Arachis pintoi hay showed high intake of digestible nutrients for a tropical legume forages, what gives support for its use in the feeding of ruminants.