 | Abstract 364Effects of ensiling or drying on five forage species in western Kenya: Zea mays (maize stover), Pennisetum purpureum (Pakistan Napier grass), Pennisetum sp. (bana grass), Impomea batata (sweet potato vines) and Cajanus cajan (pigeon pea leaves).Brown,-DL; Chavalimu,-E Maseno Research Farm, PO Box 25, Maseno, Kenya. Animal-FeedScience-andTechnology. 1985, 13: 1/2, 1-6; 6 ref. Tropical livestock production systems are enhanced when surplus wet-season feeds can be preserved for use during dry seasons. For this reason, new locally feasible preservation methods were tested on locally available feeds at Maseno, western Kenya. Values for the chemical composition of fresh, dried and ensiled maize stover, Napier grass, bana grass, sweet-potato vines and pigeon pea leaves were compared. Silage and hays preserved nutrients with equal efficiency, except for sweet-potato vine silages. The sweet-potato silages suffered a shift of protein into the acid detergent insoluble fraction, representing a loss of 37 g plant crude protein/kg silage DM. Only 15 g crude protein/kg DM was damaged when sweet-potato vines were dried. This abstract relates to the following species: |