 | Abstract 335Composition, digestibility and feed intake of Opuntia ficus indica by Ogaden sheep.Flachowsky,G; Yami,-A Sektion Tierproduktion und Veterinarmedizin der Karl-Marx-Univ. Leipzig, Wissenschaftsbereich Tierernahrungschemie, Dornburger Str. 24, 6900 Jena, German Democratic Republic. Archiv-fur-Tierernahrung. 1985, 35: 8, 599-606; 12 ref. In the spineless cactus Opuntia ficus indica 70-75% of DM was total carbohydrate and about 20% was crude ash. Apparent digestibility of organic matter was 70.9%, corresponding to 35 and 467 energy feed units (cattle)/kg fresh material and DM, respectively. Crude protein was 4.5-5.5% of DM, less than maintenance requirements for animals. When available free choice, rams preferred chopped fresh cactus to chopped dried cactus and whole fresh cactus. If only one of these 3 forms of cactus was given (in addition to a basal diet of 200 g meadow hay and 200 g concentrate daily) the sheep consumed 359 g DM daily of chopped fresh cactus (about the same as when they had the choice, 100%), 313 g DM of chopped, dried cactus (88%) and 121 g DM of whole fresh cactus sprouts (34% of total intake when they had the choice). This abstract relates to the following species: |