Effects of physical pretreated oil palm frond on feed and nutrient intakes of boer goat

Oil palm fronds (OPF) are the by-product of the harvest fresh fruit oil plants and it is known with limited nutrient composition. The presence of high lignin in OPF can reduce the digestibility of OPF in goats. Generally, lignin affected by biochemical and physiological activities of cells and it continuous differentiate which leads to physical barrier to microbial enzymes. Thus, the OPF needs to undergo specific pretreatment and effective ways to convert into useful by-products. The purpose of study is to assess the effect of physical pretreatment of OPF by pressing method using sugarcane machine on the feed and nutrient intakes in meat goat. In the present study, feeding trial was conducted for 120 days with 3 different dietary treatments. First diet (Napier grass, commercial goat pellet) acts as control group. Second diet, treatment 1 (Napier grass, commercial goat pellet, fresh chopped OPF) and third diet, treatment 2, combination of Napier grass, commercial goat pellet and physically pressed OPF. A total of twelve (12) Boer goats were assigned into three groups based on their initial body weight. The performance of goats which in terms of theirs feed and nutrient intakes were assessed. The higher dry matter intake was observed in T1 (0.72 ± 0.10) and T2 (0.70 ±0.10) as compared to control (0.57 ± 0.11). This showed that fresh chopped OPF and physical pressed OPF can increase the appetite and palatability of meat goat. However, the most significant nutrient utilization within these treatments was T1 which possessed highly significant value in organic matter, crude protein, ether extract and acid detergent fibre. It can be concluded that physical pretreated OPF may improve feed intake of meat goat but not certainty the completely nutrient absorption for animal consume it.