Growth Performance and Bio-Economic Indices of Varying Mixtures of Grass-Legume Pellets Fed to West African Dwarf (Wad) Goats

Sunday Oyewole ,O A Aderinola

doi:10.7176/jbah/9-24-09

Abstract

The need to improve forage conservation for animal usage during the dry season is a necessity. Varied mixture of grass-legume pellets (60% Panicum maximum (6Pm); 30% Panicum maximum + 30% Lablab purpureus (3Pm3Lp); 40% Panicum maximum + 20% Lablab purpureus (4Pm2Lp); 40% Panicum maximum + 20% Stylosanthes hamata (4Pm2Sh) and 30% Panicum maximum + 30% Stylosanthes hamata (3Pm3Sh)) were used to assess growth performance and bio-economic indices of varied mixtures of grass-legume pellets fed to West African Dwarf (WAD) goats. Thirty (30) WAD goats (aged 6-7 months) were used and the experimental design was a Completely Randomized Design. Data obtained were crude protein, crude fibre, ash, minerals, dry matter intake (DMI), crude protein intake (CPI), protein efficiency ratio (PER), cost of feed/weight gain (CF/W) and analyzed by one way ANOVA. 3Pm3Sh pellets had the highest (p<0.05) CP (17.32%) while 6 Pm had the highest (p<0.05) values of fibre fractions except for hemicellulose. There was no significant influence on the mineral contents except for iron, copper and chlorine. WAD goats fed 3Pm3Sh had the highest (p<0.05) DMI (458.72g/animal/day), CPI (76.72g/animal/day) and PER (0.91) which resulted in highest (p<0.05) weight gain (3.82kg). The cost of feed/weight gain was similar across the pellets except for 3Pm3Lp. Higher (p<0.05) CF/W was recorded for 3Pm3Lp. The study concluded that the grass-legume pellets can be employed as ruminant feed while pellet of 3Pm3Sh is the best grass-legume combination for WAD goats. Thus, this pellet can be fed to WAD goats during the dry season. Keywords : WAD goats, pellet, Panicm maximum , Lablab purpureum , Stylosanthes hamata DOI : 10.7176/JBAH/9-24-09 Publication date: December 31 st 2019

Highlights

(Baudon and Hancock, 2003; Fasae, 2014)
The average dry matter (DM) content of the pellets in this study was higher than the value of 88.83% reported by Fasae (2014) for cassava-leaf pellets as dry season feed in smallholder sheep production and 89.1% (Oyaniran et al, 2018) for pellets from forage legumes
The variation in crude protein (CP) content of the pellets of this study could be attributed to the differences in the types of legume combined with the grass, inclusion levels, handling and processing

Summary

Introduction

(Baudon and Hancock, 2003; Fasae, 2014). It reduces dustiness and wastage of feed as well as the cost of feeding increasing livestock production (Conrad, 1966; Amole et al, 2012; Singh et al, 2016). This processing method if well engaged could be exploited to augment feed supply to West African Dwarf goat. This paper aimed at evaluating the growth performance and bio-economic indices of varying mixtures of grasslegume pellets fed to West African Dwarf (WAD) goats

Objectives

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Discussion

Conclusion