Effect of substituting concentrate mixture with dried woybeta (Terminalia brownii Fresen) leaf meal on body weight gain and cost-benefit analysis of yearling Woyto-Guji goats in Konso, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

The current experimental work was aimed to evaluate weight gain, linear measurement and economic feasibility of yearling woyto-guji goats supplemented dried woybeta leaf meal (DWLM) as a substitute of concentrate mixture (CM). Twenty intact bucks with an average initial body weight of 19 ± 0.25 kg were selected from Baide community based breeding program (CBBP) and assigned to one of the five treatment feeds in a completely randomized block design as: (T1= Grazing + 300 g CM, T2= Grazing + 75g DWLM + 225 g CM, T3 = Grazing only, T4 = Grazing + 225 g DWLM + 75 g CM and T5= Grazing + 300 g DWLM). All animals were allowed to ad libitum access of water and the experiment was taken for the duration of 90 days. Supplemental feeding of air DWLM in current experiment positively influenced the performance of animals by providing higher feed intake and greater weight gain as compared to control group (T3). The results from ADG were 131.5g, 84.2g, 70.3g, 99.5g and 109.5g for T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5, respectively with T1 and T5 gained significantly (P<0.05) better than all other treatments. The results from DMI were 4.1kg, 3.3kg, 3.0kg, 3.5kg and 3.7kg for T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 respectively. Though goats in T1 performed better than all other treatments, supplementation of air DWLM (T5) was economically dominant and thus is recommended for the initiation of growth of yearling bucks based on the target of the producer. Therefore, it could be concluded that DWLM is a potential feed to replace CM especially during lean periods where other sources may not be readily available and expensive