aistand south~ern afrkca - (PDF, 101 mb) - USAID

Table 2. Nutritional characteristics of common grasses and fodders fed in intensive feeding systems in
Kenya. I
Forage
Regrowth
stage
(weeks)
Kiluyu grass 8
Rhodes grass 6
Star grass 10
Nandi setaria 4
Napier grass 5
Sweet potato vines -
Silverleaf desmodium -
1. Modified from Said (1976).
2. Calculated by authors.
(-) Not determined.
early stage of growth (Ogwang and Mugerwa,
1976; Mureithi, personal communication). There
are varietal differences in DM production of
Napier grass which should be exploited by
researchers for extension to farmers,
Table 3 gives information on the nutritional
composition and degradability ofcommon fodder
crops offered to animals under intensive feeding
in Kenya. They are variable in composition but,
as already reported (Abate and Abate, 1991),
feeding a combination of fodders has a balancing
effect on the intake of critical nutrients such as
protein and minerals. Apart from banana leaves,
the fodders have moderate to high DM
degradability. Kamande(1988)has reported that
the major differences in DM disappearance of
fodders are established significantly (P