Nutritional evaluation of leaves from some major fodder trees cultivated in the hills of Nepal

Leaves from some major and important fodder trees cultivated by the farmers for feeding ruminants in the hills of Nepal were studied for proximate components, detergent fibers, macro and trace minerals, metabolizable energy (ME), digestibility and anti-nutrients. Dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP) and ash content of fodder tree leaves ranged between 22 and 53, 11 and 22, 5 and 17%, respectively. Acid detergent fiber (20–54%) and lignin (6–35%) contents were high but cellulose (13–33%) and hemicellulose (1–31%) contents low. Most of the tree fodder leaves contained Ca>1%, K>1% and Mg>0.25%, but Na content in majority of them was low, <0.06%. Phosphorus was mostly within the range of 0.16–0.40%. Trace mineral contents, Mn, Fe, Zn and Cu were >27, >15, >100 and <26 mg/kg, respectively, on DM basis. Neutral cellulase digestibility (NCD) and organic matter digestibility (OMD) of the leaves varied greatly among the species with values 41–83 and 49–82%, respectively. Degradability of DM (36–80%) and protein (40–88%) also varied greatly among the species studied. ME content was found to be within the range of 8–13 MJ/kg DM. Lignin content was high in most of the species with values more than 10% on DM basis. Tannin content in most of the species was more than 1%, with highest values (>12%) found in the genus Terminalia. Critical examination of the importance of various species on the basis of laboratory analyses has been made and relevance to ruminant nutrition in Nepal has been discussed.