Abstract
An experiment with 25 growing goats (in 5 groups) were fed four different tree forage based diets (B,C,D,E) and control A showed that there were significant (p<0.05) differences in DM , ME and DCP intakes. Although there were no significant differences in the digestibility of DM, OM, CP and ADF but intake of these nutrients were significantly (p<0.05) differed among the treatments. There were no significant differences in the digestibility of diets having different forages but they were significantly higher than that of grass based control diet. Feeding of tree forages had significant (p<0.05) effect on live weight gain of goats. Animals fed tree forage based diets significantly (p<0.05) increased weight gain (60.03, 59.10, 57.75 and 55.57 g/d for Sesbania grandiflora, Leucaena leucocephala, Erythrina orientalis and Morus alba, respectively) compared to that of control group (39.25 g/d) . However, there were no significant differences in weight gain of the animals fed different tree forage based diets. Feed conversion efficiency (kg feed/kg gain) also showed that animals fed tree forage based diets presented significantly (p<0.01) higher efficiency (11.74, 12.05, 12.21 and 12.02) for L. leucocephala, E. orientalis, S. grandiflora and M. alba compared to that (16.00) of fed control diet. Nitrogen balance trial showed that there were significant (p<0.05) differences among the mean values in terms of total N intake (g/d), nitrogen retention (%) and nitrogen balance (g/d). It may be concluded that supplementation of diets with tree forages resulted in better weight gain, digestibility and nitrogen balance compared to green grass. So, the diets of goats may be supplemented with tree forages of S. grandiflora, L. leucocephala, E. orientalis and M. alba for improved growth performance.Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. June 2015, 1(2): 209-215
Highlights
Among domestic ruminants, goats are classified as intermediate selective feeders with preference for browse and sheep are classified as non selective intermediate feeders with preference for grasses, buffalos and cattle as grazers (Schwartz and Schafft, 1988)
The highest growth rate was observed in animals fed on S. grandiflora followed by L. leucocephala, E. orientalis, M. alba and non tree forage group
Nhan (1998) reported that the best live weight gain was with the supplement of S. grandiflora followed by L. leucocephala
Summary
Goats are classified as intermediate selective feeders with preference for browse and sheep are classified as non selective intermediate feeders with preference for grasses, buffalos and cattle as grazers (Schwartz and Schafft, 1988). The traditional management system for goat production by smallholders has consisted of day-time grazing on natural pasture and housing usually in a pen with raised floors at nighttime (San, 2002). It is quite common for the farmers to offer tree foliages during periods of feed shortage, such as during the dry season and in times of flooding. There are a lot of tree forages in different regions of Bangladesh Such a huge variation in the nutrient contents in particular of CP content indicates that feeding of the forages will have great effect in the performance of livestock. An experiment was conducted to know the effect of selected tree forages on the intake, digestibility and growth performance of black Bengal goats
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