Ingestive behavior and in vivo digestibility of goats fed green coconut copra

Abstract

The introduction of new feeds in ruminant nutrition is essential to maximize performance and to minimize production costs; however, this is only possible after knowing the feeding behavior of the animals and nutrient availability. The objective of this study was to evaluate the ingestive behavior and in vivo digestibility of goats fed increasing levels (0%, 2%, 4%, and 7%) of copra extracted from green coconuts. Twenty male goats of undefined breed were allocated in a completely randomized design. The addition of increasing levels of coconut copra had a quadratic effect on dry matter intake and daily rumination time. An increasing linear effect was observed for rumination time of dry matter and neutral detergent fiber. There was no effect (P>0.05) on the apparent digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, or non-fibrous carbohydrates. The digestible non-fibrous carbohydrate intake or apparent digestibility of hemicellulose and total digestible nutrients was also not affected. A quadratic effect of increasing inclusion levels of copra was observed for apparent ether extract digestibility, while the increasing inclusion of copra had a decreasing linear effect (P<0.05) on digestible neutral detergent fiber intake, apparent crude protein digestibility, digestible crude protein intake, and digestible ether extract intake. The best inclusion level of coconut copra for goat feeding is 3.15% of the total diet to increase dry matter intake and apparent ether extract digestibility without affecting the apparent digestibility of neutral detergent fiber, but reducing crude protein digestibility.