Deriving nutrient requirements of growing Indian goats under tropical condition

Abstract

Data from 25 feeding trials conducted on growing goats, from different research institutes across India were subjected to multiple regression analysis to derive nutritional requirements of TDN, CP and DCP for maintenance and BW gain. Maintenance requirements for TDN, CP and DCP were 30.1, 5.83 and 3.22 g/kg BW 0.75, respectively. The corresponding requirements for one g gain in BW were 1.61, 0.45 and 0.34 g, respectively. Regression equations had high R 2 values (range, 0.75–0.86) and the equations ( F-value) as well as coefficients were highly significant ( P < 0.001). Regressed values were used to develop feeding standards. Derived values matched well with the actual intake versus performance of animals under diverse feeding conditions. The new standards so derived predicted requirements for different production levels better than existing feeding standards especially for CP and DCP. The present estimate of DCP requirements for maintenance of growing goats compares closely with 3.19 [Winter, J., Görsh, R., 1974. Ziegen als Versuchstiere. Ein Beitrag zur Fuetterungsoptimierung (Goats as experimental animals. A contribution on feeding optimization). Zeitschr. Versuchstierkd 16, 256 (Cit: Haenlein, G.F.W. 1978 Dairy goat management. J. Dairy Sci. 61: 1011–1022)]; 3.05 [Rajpoot, R.L., 1979. Energy and protein in goat nutrition. Ph.D. thesis, Raja Balwant Singh Clooege, Bichpuri, Agra, India, pp. 36–65]; 3.40 [Sengar, O.P.S., 1980. Indian research on protein and energy requirements of goats. J. Dairy Sci. 63, 1654–1670]; and 3.59 g/kg MBW [Okagbare, G.O., Nwokoro, S.O., Onagbesan, O.M., 2004. Protein and energy requirements of pre-weaned West African Dwarf goats fed soyabean diet as a replacement for milk in a tropical environment. Trop. Anim. Health Prod. 36, 547–555] but is higher than 2.50 [Majumdar, B.N., 1960. Studies on goat nutrition. Part II. Digestible protein requirements for maintenance from balance studies. J. Agric. Sci. 54, 335–340]; 2.85 [Singh, S.N., Sengar, O.P.S., 1970. Final Technical Report of the P.L. 480 Research Project No. A7-AH-18. Investigation on milk and meat potentialities of Indian goats. Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, R.B.S. College, Bichpuri, Agra, India, pp. 4–5]; 2.42 ( Singh and Mudgal, 1978); and 2.6 g/kg MBW [Singh, N., Mudgal, V.D., 1991. Protein requirements of castrated Beetal goat buck. Small Rumin. Res. 4, 127–135]. The estimated total CP requirements (for maintenance and gain) are higher (30–33%) than the values recommended by [NRC, 1981. Nutrient Requirements of Goats: Angora, Dairy, and Meat Goats in Temperate and Tropical Countries. National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, Washington, DC, pp. 2–53] or [Kearl, L.C., 1982. Nutrient Requirements of Ruminants in Developing Countries. International Feed Stuffs Institute. Utah Agriculture Experimental Station. Utah State University, Logon, Utah, USA, pp. 45–58]. Evaluation of accuracy of existing feeding standards for goats using the present data set indicated that ME requirements proposed by [NRC, 1981. Nutrient Requirements of Goats: Angora, Dairy, and Meat Goats in Temperate and Tropical Countries. National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, Washington, D. C., pp. 2–53], [Kearl, L.C., 1982. Nutrient Requirements of Ruminants in Developing Countries. International Feed Stuffs Institute. Utah Agriculture Experimental Station. Utah State University, Logon, Utah, USA, pp. 45–58], [ICAR, 1998. Nutrient Requirements of Domestic Animals. Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, India, p. 11] and [GfE, 2003. Recommendations for the Supply of Energy and Nutrients to Goats. The Committee for Requirement Standards of the Society of Nutrition Physiology Report No. 9. DLG-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, Germany] were adequately accurate for prediction of requirements of Indian goats but CP or DCP requirements predicted by [NRC, 1981. Nutrient Requirements of Goats: Angora, Dairy, and Meat Goats in Temperate and Tropical Countries. National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, Washington, DC, pp. 2–53], [Kearl, L.C., 1982. Nutrient Requirements of Ruminants in Developing Countries. International Feed Stuffs Institute. Utah Agriculture Experimental Station. Utah State University, Logon, Utah, USA, pp. 45–58], and [ICAR, 1998. Nutrient Requirements of Domestic Animals. Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, India, p. 11] had high under-prediction bias and low accuracy. As the new standards derived in the present study are based on a more thorough analysis of a larger database, the new feeding standards will be appropriate for wide use in India.