Proceedings
The CARDI Forage Legume Project in Antigua, West Indies has identified several well adapted and productive grass and legume species suitable for improving small-ruminant forage systems in the Caribbean. Browse legumes such as Leucaena leucocephala must be an important component of forage systems for intensive goat production; seed of the selected varieties of Leucaena, "Peru" and "Cunningham", is commercially available. Several other species are promising browse-types including Desmanthus virgatus, Desmodium spp., CIAT 335, D. tortuosum and Codariocalyx gyroides. The natural vegetation of many of the drier islands of the Caribbean is rich in browse-type legumes. Goats offer the only feasible means of converting the herbage from these marginal shrub areas into a marketable food product. In addition to naturally occurring shrubby forms of Leucaena leucocephala and of D. virgatus a wide range of other endemic and naturalized leguminous shrubs and trees offer high-protein browse for goats in these marginal and reverted areas: Acacia nilotica, A. tortuosa and A. macracantha, Albezzia lebbek; Calliandra spp.; Cassia glandulosa; Haematoxylum campechianum; Parkinsonia aculeata; Pithecellobium unguis cati; Prospois chilensis and Sesbania grandiflora, S. bispinosa and S. exaltata. The Caribbean is the centre of origin of the herbaceous non-climbing legume Stylosanthes hamata which is well utilized by goats and shows excellent persistence when hard grazed. Climbing types such as Clitoria ternatea, Teramnus labialis, Centrosema pubescens, Macroptilium atropurpureum and Neonotonia wightii provide excellent browse for goats when grown in intensive legume-based grazing systems using upright grasses such as Panicum maximum as companion/support plants. The use of "protein/energy banks" of tall grasses such as Elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) plus climbing legumes, for intensive cut and carry systems is highly recommended. Pure "banks" of legumes such as Leucaena are also a part of such systems, the principle of which is to use legumes for "home-grown" protein supplements and biological nitrogen
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| Format: | biblioteca |
| Published: |
Scottsdale, AZ (EUA)
1982
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| Subjects: | CAPRINOS, ALIMENTACION DE LOS ANIMALES, FORRAJES, RAMONEO, ARBUSTOS FORRAJEROS, LEGUMINOSAS, ANTIGUA, CARIBE, |
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