Chemical Quality of Silage Mixture of Sorghum Bicolor (Andropogon Bicolor L. Roxb) and Gamal (Gliricidia Sepium) Leaves with Different Ratios

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the chemical quality of silage mixture of sorghum bicolor (Andropogon bicolor L. roxb) and gamal leaves with different ratios. A completely randomised design (4×4) was applied with four different ratios tried, namely, P₀: sorghum bicolor silage without gamal leaves; P₁: mixed silage 80% sorghum bicolor + 20% gamal leaves, P₂: mixed silage 70% sorghum bicolor + 30% gamal leaves and P₃: mixed silage 60% sorghum bicolor + 40% gamal leaves. The variables studied included crude protein (CP), crude fibre (CF), nitrogen free extract (NFE) and gross energy (GE) content. The study showed the silage characteristics of P₀, P₁, P₂ and P₃ for CP (%) 11.38; 13.71; 14.83 and 15.10; CF (%) 22.53; 21.47; 20.54 and 20.43; NFE (%) 43.56; 42.37; 42.26 and 42.22; GE (kcal/kg DM) 3491.18; 3540.60; 3580.37 and 3588.86, respectively. The results of variance analysis showed that the treatment had a very significant effect (P<0.01) on CP and CF content but not significant (P>0.05) on NFE and GE. It was concluded that silage mixture of sorghum bicolor and gamal leaves up to 60:40 increased CP content and decreased CF and gave the same NFE and GE content compared to sorghum bicolor silage without gamal leaves.