Fodder Yield and Nutritive Value of Browse Species in West African Humid Tropics: Response to Age of Coppice Regrowth

Several indigenous and exotic browse species with potential for development of agroforestry technologies in the humid tropics of west Africa have been identified, but information on their fodder yield and quality, and how this is influenced by age of coppice regrowth is scanty and limited to a few species. The effect of age of coppice of regrowth (8, 12, 16, and 20 weeks) on fodder yield, and concentrations of crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF), acid detergent lignin (lignin), and acid detergent ash (ADF-Ash) in the fodder of 27 browse species was studied in the humid forest zone of southeastern Nigeria. The fodder yield, and concentrations of NDF, ADF and lignin increased (p<0.05), while CP declined (p<0.05) with increasing age of coppice regrowth for all the browse species. The ADF-Ash concentrations of eight browse species increased linearly (p<0.05), while that of 19 species followed a quadratic (p<0.05) trend in response to increasing age of coppice regrowth. Bauhinia monandra, Calliandra calothyrsus, Dalbergia sissoo, Enterolobium cyclocarpum, Grewia pubescens, Gliricidia sepium, Leucaena leucocephala, Senna spectabilis, and Terminalia superba were identified to have high potential for the development of integrated crop-livestock agroforestry technologies in the west African humid tropics based on fodder yield, concentrations of CP, NDF, ADF and lignin. Coppice regrowth of the promising species could be harvested between 16 and 20 weeks to maximize yield and quality of the fodder. The results showed that fodder yield and chemical composition could be used to identify browse species for the development of agroforestry technologies for smallholder crop-livestock farming systems.