3. Results
Organic matter content in the browse leaves ranged from 83.8% in ficus leaves to 93.1% in chaya leaves (Table 1).
Among the browse leaves chaya and ficus leaves had the highest concentration of nitrogen (average 3.25% DM)
whereas terminalia had the lowest. However, the NDF concentration was highest in terminalia and lowest in chaya.
The nitrogen content of cassava peels was lower than the concentrations found in all browse leaves. Average daily
DM intake of the wethers used in the in sacco studies was 1.3 kg. The DM disappearance of cassava peels was 43% after 24 h of incubation and 53% after 48 h (Fig. 1). Chaya leaves were rapidly degraded in the rumen; approximately 79% of the DM had disappeared after 24 h incubation. In contrast,only 36% of the DM in terminalia leaves had disappeared by 24 h.The degradation characteristics of DM and N of the cassava peels, chaya leaves, ficus leaves and terminalia leaves are shown (Table 2). Among the three leaves, the rapidly disappearing DM fraction “a” of chaya leaves (38.8%) was highest (P < 0.05), followed by that of terminalia leaves (29.4%) and ficus leaves (25.5%). The rate of disappearance (c), of the “b” fraction of chaya leaves and terminalia leaves were similar (P > 0.05), however, they were approximately