Valor nutricional de la algarroba (prosopis Pallida) en la alimentación del caballo

The present research was carried out to estimate the nutritional value of carob bean (Prosopis pallida) in horses. Four rations with increasing carob bean levels (0; 20: 46.7 y 66.7%) in a base-diet of barley and lucerne hay were evaluated. Four Anglo-Argentinien crossbred geldings were fed the four rations using a simple overchange model with an arrangement of the 4 x 4 Latin Square. A feeding-test consisting of lucerne hay alone was previously done, aiming at obtaining digestibility of carob bean by difference in percentage with the treatment containing 66.77% carob bean. Digestibility of both dry and organic matter was 62.1% and 61.6%, respectively. The increase of carob bean's content in rations reduced digestibility in most nutritional fractions of feeding rations, with the exception of ethereal extract. Reduction followed a linear, significant pattern (P<0.05) for organic matter, nitrogen-free extract, neutral detergent fibre and acid detergent fibre.