Feeding Wild Sunflower (Tithonia Diversifolia Hemsl., A. Gray) to West African Dwarf Goats as a Dry Season Forage Supplement

Abstract

A study was conducted to investigate the nutritional response of West African Dwarf (WAD) goats offered a concentrate diet containing Wild sunflower leaf meal, as a dry season feed supplement. Twenty WAD goats with age range of 5 – 7 months, weighing approximately 6.94 ± 0.37 kg were randomly allotted to a concentrate diet containing graded levels of Wild sunflower leaf meal (WSLM) at 0, 10, 20 and 30% levels of inclusion, offered as supplement to a guinea grass basal diet, in a completely randomized design. The experiment, which lasted 16 weeks, measured the nutritional performance indices of the WAD goats such as Feed intake, Weight gain, Digestibility, Nitrogen utilization and Feed conversion ratio. Results obtained indicate no significant difference in the dry matter intake (DMI), weight gain and dry matter digestibility of the goats on the different diets. However, the crude protein digestibility and nitrogen utilization of goats on 0% and 10% WSFLM inclusion were higher than those on 20% and 30% WSLM diet. It was concluded that wild sunflower leaf meal can serve as a forage supplement to the WAD goats up to 30% level of inclusion without any deleterious effect.