In-Vitro Gas Fermentation Pattern of Maize Straw with Cassava Peel Based Supplement

This study was carried out to investigate the in vitro gas fermentation pattern using maize straw with cassava peels based supplement fed to WAD goats. The goats were fed in six different treatments, with (treatment 1: maize straw +10%cassava peels concentrate without oil drench, treatment 2:maize straw +25%cassava peels concentrate with oil, treatment 3:maize straw + 50% cassava peels without oil, treatment 4:maize straw+25% cassava peels concentrate without oil, treatment 5:maize straw+50%cassava peels concentrate without oil and treatment 6:maize straw +10%cassava peels concentrate with oil). Maize straw and cassava peels were later dried and milled for chemical analysis and in vitro gas fermentation study. Chemical analysis of maize straw and cassava peels show that cassava peels concentrate produced higher crude protein content than maize straw. The NDF values for maize straw and cassava peels was 55% and 33% while the ADF values were 31.5% and 16% respectively.

In vitro gas studies show that treatments with oil did not show significant difference (P>0.05) to treatments without oil in terms of gas production as shown in treatment 3 with oil and treatment 5 without oil. Gas volume was significantly higher (P>0.05) in treatment 2 with oil compare to treatment 4 without oil. Value for methane production varied from 0.33ml to 4ml for treatments with oil and 2ml to 4.33ml for treatment without oil.DMD was highest in treatment 5 and lowest in treatment 6.This result show that oil had significant effect (P<0.05) on gas production using maize straw supplemented at low levels (0-25%) with cassava peels based concentrate as fed suggesting that oil did significantly reduce the rate of methanogenesis in terms of methane reduction at low level of supplementation with cassava peels.