Summary: | This study was conducted to determine the digestibility of native grass silage supplemented with different levels of Leucaena leucocephala. The study was designed using completely randomized design with 3 levels supplementation of Leucaena (10, 20, and 30%) and each treatment was done in 6 replications. All of the silage treatments were inoculated with 4% Lactobacillus plantarum, and stored in mini-silos for 21 days. The results showed that supplementing native grass with 20% Leucaena resulted in the greatest (P<0.05) dry matter and organic matter digestibilities. However, the greatest digestibility of crude protein obtained at 10% Leucaena supplementation and that digestibility decreased linearly with the increasing levels of supplementation (P<0.05). Although there were no effects was detected due to Leucaena supplementation on culture rumen pH and VFA concentration, a significant decrease of NH3-N concentration and significant increase of rumen microbial protein were noticed (P<0.05) as the level of Leucaena supplementation was increased. These data indicate that supplementing native grass with 30% Leucaena is the best treatment in term of microbial protein yield, although nutrient digestibilities were lower than the other treatments.
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