Effects of supplementation of different sources of tannins on nutrient digestibility, methane production and daily weight gain of beef cattle fed on ammoniated oil palm frond based diet

Abstract

Background and Objective: Tannins have the ability to reduce methane production in ruminants, thereby increasing the efficiency of the utilization of energy and optimizing animal body weight gain. This study was conducted in order to determine the effect of supplementation of tannins from two different sources of ammoniated oil palm frond in diets based on ammoniated oil palm as a source of roughage, on the feed intake, digestibility and daily weight gain of beef cattle. The source of the tannin is gambier leaf waste (GLW) from Lima Puluh Kota and Pesisir Selatan, two districts in West Sumatra province. Materials and Methods: The study was designed using Latin Square Design (LSD). Treatment A, the control, was a complete cattle feed consisting of oil palm frond pre-treated with 6% urea+concentrate. Treatment B was Diet A+10% GLW Painan and treatment C was diet A+15% GLW Payakumbuh. Each treatment had a roughage to concentrate ratio of 50:50. Parameters measured were feed intake, nutrient digestibility, body weight gain and methane production. Results: Results showed that treatments had no significant (p>0.05) effects on intakes of dry matter and organic matter, but did have a significant effect (p<0.05) on nutrient digestibility, average daily gain and methane production. Digestibility of dry matter increased from 59.95% (treatment A) to 62.02 and 63.52% with treatments C and B, respectively. Methane production decreased from 2.48 MJ/day (treatment A) to 1.28 MJ/day and 1.26 MJ/day with treatments B and C, respectively and daily weight gain increased from 0.65-0.90 and 0.95 kg/day. Conclusion: The results showed that the supplementation of GLW increased nutrient digestibility and daily weight gain and reduced methane production. There was no significant difference between sources of GLW.