Evaluation of Protein Quality of Rice Straw Based Feed With Mulberry Leaves To Subtitute Concentrate for Ongole Cattle

Abstract

Rice straw is the predominant dry season feed for cattle, despite its low nutritive value. It is deficient in readily fermentable energy, nitrogen, minerals and vitamins, and cannot provide for optimum microbial growth in the rumen or tissue development of the host. Mulberry belongs to the genus Morus of the family Moraceae. Mulberry (M. alba) foliage, characterized by its high digestibility and good protein content, has great possibilities for use in animal feeding, both for ruminants and for monogastrics. The aim of this experiment was to investigate and evaluate quality of protein content from the ration based on rice straw, which is combinated with mulberry to substitute the concentrate as feed for cattle. The experiment was conducted for 56 days with the adaptation periods for 2 weeks. This experiment used completely randomized design, with 3 treatments and 4 replications. The treatments were P1 as control (50% rice straw + 50% concentrate), P2 (50% rice straw + 25% concentrate + 25% Mulberry leaves), P3 (50% rice straw + 50% Mulberry leaves). This experiment used 217.16 ± 10.53 kg male ongole crossbreed. The variables measured were protein consumption, protein digestibility, nitrogen retention, NH3 concentration, allantoin urine and total VFA concentration. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Duncan Multiple Range Test further tested the significant differences. The cattle given P2 treatment showed the best result for protein consumption (0.96 kg/d) compared to P3 (0.86 kg/d), allantoin urine (1.73 g/d) compared to P1 (2.23 g/d) and total VFA concentration (108.75 mM) compared to P1 (75.33 mM). It can be concluded that quality of mulberry leaves protein can be used to substitute 50% concentrate in the ration as feed protein resources for ruminants especially increasing protein consumption, allantoin urine and total VFA.

Limbah pertanian khususnya jerami padi memiliki potensi yang cukup besar sebagai sumber pakan ternak ruminansia karena ketersediaannya cukup berlimpah dan berkesinambungan, terutama di Indonesia. Pemanfaatan jerami padi harus diimbangi dengan penambahan pakan berkualitas yang pada umumnya berupa konsentrat. Daun murbei merupakan salah satu sumber bahan pakan alternatif yang berpotensi cukup tinggi untuk meningkatkan produktivitas ternak karena memiliki kandungan nutrien yang baik, terutama sebagai sumber protein. Ransum dengan kadar protein yang sama bisa jadi memiliki tingkat fermentabilitas, ketahanan protein terhadap degradasi rumen, kecernaan protein oleh enzim pencernaan pasca rumen dan sintesis protein mikroba yang berbeda-beda. Oleh karena itu kadar protein ransum yang tinggi tidak dapat menjamin bahwa ransum tersebut berkualitas baik. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengevaluasi kualitas protein daun murbei sebagai pengganti konsentrat bila dikombinasikan dengan jerami padi.