Thesis (MSc. (Animal Production)) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / A study was conducted to determine the effect of shredded Colophospermum (C.)
mopane wood inclusion as roughage on performance of fattening Nguni heifers
weighing 200 ± 5kg. The four diets used were isocaloric and isonitrogenous but with
different shredded C. mopane wood inclusion levels of 5 (F95M5), 8.5 (F91.5M8.5), 10
(F90M10) and 15 (F85M15) %. The heifers were randomly allocated to the treatments in a
completely randomized design. A quadratic equation was used to determine the
shredded C. mopane inclusion levels for optimal productivity of the heifers. Shredded C.
mopane wood inclusion level had effect (P<0.05) on intake and feed conversion ratio
(FCR). Diet DM, OM, CP, NDF and ADF intakes per metabolic weight and FCR of
Nguni heifers were optimized at different shredded C. mopane wood inclusion levels of
11.0, 13.7, 8.0, 15.0, 14.0, 14.0 and 15%, respectively. However, shredded C. mopane
wood inclusion level did not affect (P>0.05) diet in vitro digestibility, carcass weight,
dressing percentage, meat pH, meat shear force values and meat colour intensities
except for red colour intensity of rump steak. It was, thus, concluded that shredded C.
mopane wood can be used as roughage without adversely affecting diet intake, FCR,
and live weight of Nguni heifers. However, diet intake and FCR were optimized at
different C. mopane wood inclusion levels.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ul/oai:ulspace.ul.ac.za:10386/1784 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Kgasago, Nkgaugelo |
| Contributors | NG’AMBI, J. W. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | viii, 53 leaves |
| Relation | Adobe Acrobat Reader |
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