This work was carried out for evaluating in vivo digestibility of nutrients from FM 86 and FM SM cultivars of mulberry at two growth ages, 45 and 90 days. Eight Saanen male goats being six month-old and 26kg of live weight were used. Experimental design was completely randomized factorial 2 x 2 (two mulberry cultivars and two growth ages). The NDF digestibility coefficient of FM 86 cultivar (74.82%) was higher than the FM SM (69.36%) and there was not statiscal difference between their growth ages. In relation to ADF digestibility coefficient, there was significant interaction between cultivars and growth ages. FM 86 cultivar with 45 day-old showed ADF digestibility coefficient higher (75.09%) than that with 90 day-old (68.82%). Considering NDT and energy, DM and CP digestibility coefficients, it was observed the superiority of plants with 45 day-old, independently of the cultivar. It was concluded that FM 86 and FM SM cultivars showed great energetic values and high DM, CP and cellular wall constituents digestibility coefficients which indicated the elevated power of mulberry for using as forage in goat nutrition.
nutrition; feed evaluation; roughage
