In-Sacco Degradability, Chemical and Morphological Composition of Five Varieties of Sorghum Stover

Abstract

The nutritive value was studied on stover of five sorghum varieties namely, Himacy, Wad-Ahmed, Tabat, Hageen and Fetrita collected from the Elmailig, Gezira State. The whole stover was separated into stem and leaves (leaf blade and sheath). The evaluation was based on morphological proportion, chemical composition, and in situ dry matter degradability. Stem contribution to whole stover was significantly varied from 65.4% for Himacy to 35.1% for Fetrita. No significant difference in crude protein (CP) content between the sorghum stover fractions. The stem tended to have a lower ash and silica content compared to leaves. Neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and lignin levels were highest (P<0.05) in stem. There was a great variability (P< 0.05) in cell wall components between the different varieties of the whole sorghum stover. The highest CP and lowest fiber (NDF, ADF and cellulose) content was reported for wad Ahmed in contrast to Himacy. Effective degradability (ED) ranking leaves of the different varieties in order Wad Ahmed > Fetrita > Tabat > Hageen > Himacy. Stems ranked as followed; Tabat > Fetrita > Wad Ahmed > Hageen > Himacy in out flow rate of 0.02 h-1. The potential degradability (PD) and ED at all out flow rates were higher for Wad Ahmed and lower for Himacy. In conclusion, leaf blades and sheath have the lowest cell wall content and therefore, the higher degradability indicating a higher potential feeding value of leaves than stems. Therefore, varieties with high proportion of leaves ranked higher in nutritive valse