Shrub found good feed for ruminants

This piece is particularly for smallholder livestock raisers.

Flemigia (scientific name: Flemingia macrophylla; local name, "malabalatong"), a leguminous tropical shrub, has been found as a good source of dietary protein for ruminant animals (cattle, carabao, goat).

It contains 22.7 percent crude protein (CP) and eight percent tannin.

Because of its tannin content, flemingia has low CP digestibility in the rumen (large first compartment of the stomach of ruminant animals). As such, it is considered a good and effective source of dietary by-pass protein for these animals.

By-pass protein, explained Dr. Elaine F. Lanting, assistant director of PCARRD’s Livestock Research Division, are proteins that pass the rumen undegraded but are digested and absorbed in the small intestines of the animals.

"In this way, it becomes beneficial to the animals since they directly utilities these proteins for higher production (higher weight gain, higher milk yield, etc.)," Dr. Lanting added.

In a PCARRD-funded research project, Dr. Cesar Sevilla of the UP Los Baños Institute of Animal Science reported that flemingia has lower CP, higher neutral detergent fiber, and higher condensed tannin compared to more popular fodder species such as ipil-ipil and kakawate.

"But this is well-compensated by its high by-pass proteins," he said.

The benefits from flemingia are more pronounced when its is combined with other forage legumes that are easily digested in the rumen such as ipil-ipil, kakawate, stylo, rensonii, and desmanthus. – RAF