Evaluation of Sonia (BMR Mutant Sorghum and Tithonia diversifolia) Usage as Sustainable Alternative Feed to Reduce Concentrate Dependency in Ruminant Diet: In Vitro Study

This study aimed to evaluate the potential of Sonia, a novel feed blend comprising BMR mutant sorghum and Tithonia diversifolia, as a sustainable alternative to conventional concentrates in ruminant diets.A Randomized Block Design (RBD) was employed in this research, incorporating four different treatment levels: 60% Sonia+40% concentrate, 70% Sonia+30% concentrate, 80% Sonia+20% concentrate, and 90% Sonia+10% concentrate.The variable determined in the present study were, hence, acid detergent fibre (ADF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), hemicellulose, crude fibre, cellulose, nitrogen-free extract (NFE), crude fat, and total gas production, microbial biomass.In the present study the findings revealed that percentage variation in the proportion of sonia did not reflect the following main nutritional parameters.From the results of the study, the fairly steady digestibility and fermentation values obtained in the various treatments suggest that Sonia can potentially be a cheap source of feed.Crude fiber, crude fat, IVNFED, IVCLD and IVHLD digestibility varies between 60.30-63.72%suggesting lower digestibility as the content increases, While IVNDFD and IVADFD levels of digestibility fall between 53.65-59.01%.Nevertheless, the total gas production and microbial biomass were also unaffected by treatments.This research can relate Sonia's ability to improve the sustainability and effectiveness of feed in ruminant production systems.The application of Sonia can help reduce demand for traditional animal concentrates without reducing the quality of animal feed.