Determination dry matter digestibility of tropical forage using nutrient compisition

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between dry matter digestibility (DMD) and nutrient composition parameters in tropical forage (grass, legume, and a combination of both) and determining prediction equation for dry matter digestibility using nutrient composition variables as the predictor. The nutrient composition consists of 62 forages (31 grasses and 31 legumes), included of ash, crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), crude fiber (CF), nitrogen-free extract (NFE), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), hemicellulose, cellulose and DMD, all expressed as a percentage of dry matter.. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to measure DMD estimated models. Models were validated with the coefficient of determination (R2), mean absolute deviation (MAD), root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), were taken into consideration. Our result confirm that the nutrient composition can be efficiently used to determine the DMD of tropical forages, grasses, and legumes Prediction equation DMD in tropical forage, grass and legume were DMD = 104.267 - 0.918 ADF - 0.374 Hemicellulose, DMD = 110.409 - 1.363 ADF, DMD = 102.864 - 1.336 NDF + 0.602 Hemicellulose + 0.938 Cellulose, respectively.