Intake, nutritive value and digestibility in Holstein heifers fed diets supplemented with peanut hay (Arachis Hypogeal L)

This study was conducted to measure the intake; nutritive value and digestibility of peanut hay (Arachis hypogaea L.). Fourteen Holstein heifers (BW= 408 plus/minus 32 kg; Age = 15.4 months plus/minus 0.5) were randomly allocated to two diets: peanut hay (PH) and corn silage (CS) adlibtum for 26 days. The PH consisted of 66:34 forage: concentrate (F:C) and CS diet contained 57:43 F:C ratio. Peanut hay at 91.8% DM contained 8% CP, 64% NDF, 51.9% ADF and 8 % ash. DMI and CP was not different across the treatment diets (P>0.05). NDF and ADF intake was different between the diets with PH being greater (P<0.01). Feed Efficiency using the feed to gain ratio was different across the diets (P<0.0001). Dry matter digestibility was 75.37% for CS diet and 68.53% for PH diet. Peanut hay basal diets formulated to contain low F:C ratio can increase growth in dairy heifers.