Hiep et al., 2008. Livest. Res. Rural Dev., 20 (Suppl.)

This study was conducted to determine the influence of different amount of sugarcane molasses in tropical Kudzu silage and to evaluate the feed intake and digestibility of Kudzu silage and Kudzu hay in Sindhi crossbred heifers. In the first experiment, four levels of sugarcane molasses (653 g DM/kg and 528 g WSC/kg DM) at 0, 30, 60 and 90 kg/tonne of fresh Kudzu and two storage periods (20 and 50 days) were allocated in a 4*2 factorial complete randomized design with three replicates. 48 plastic buckets with 10 kg fresh grass were prepared, and 24 buckets were used for pH determination at days 7 and 14 after silage making. In the second experiment, Kudzu vine silage with 6% sugarcane molasses and Kudzu hay were used to measure the feed intake and digestibility of the animals. Six Red Sindhi crossbred heifers, 8-10 months old and 150-180 kg, were randomly allocated in a repeated randomized complete block design two times with three treatments: Guinea grass 280 diet (control), grass diet with Kudzu silage (KS) and grass diet with Kudzu hay (KH). 85% mean dry matter intake was measured for the digestibility determination. Tropical Kudzu foliage can be preserved by making hay or silage. Sugarcane molasses should be added at least 3% to fresh Kudzu. Dry matter intake increased with the preserved Kudzu foliage, especially with the Kudzu hay supplement. The organic matter and crude protein apparent digestibility coefficients of Kudzu silage were 61.6 and 54.7%, and 62.1 and 58.1% for Kudzu hay, respectively. It suggested that the higher digestibility of Kudzu hay and Kudzu silage than grass and the higher intake of supplemented diets improve the growth rate of cattle