Growth performance and carcass characteristics of West African Dwarf bucks fed Panicum maximum and Bambara nut (Vigna subterrancea) seed meal supplemented diets

Abstract

Twelve individually housed West African Dwarf (WAD) Bucks averaging 7.3 ±0.91kg were used to study the effect of varying levels of Bambara nut seed meal on the performance and carcass characteristics of West African Dwarf (WAD) Bucks. Four experimental diets designated A, B, C and D were formulated to contain 0, 10, 20 and 3096 Bambara nut meal (BNM) respectively. The twelve WAD bucks were divided into four (4) groups of three animals each. Each group was assigned to one of the four experimental diets in a completely randomized experiment. Each animal in a group represented a replicate. The experiment lasted 56 days, Data on Feed and dry matter intake, Weight gain, concentrate/gain ratio, dressing percentage and carcass quality was collected. Investigations revealed that incorporating BNM in concentrate diets did not significantly (P>0,05) enhance dry matter intake (405, 416, 395 and 407g/day for diets A, B, C and D respectively), daily weight gain (27, 60, 23, and 42g/day for diets A, B, C and D respectively) concentrate /gain ratio (9.36, 5.62, 10.60 and 8.37 for diets A, B, C and D respectively). Dressing percentage differed significantly (P<0.05) among treatment groups and was higher for goats fed the BNM- based diets compared to the control and the values were 40.56, 43.28, 41.85 and 41.34%for diets A, B, C and D respectively. Meat cut values showed that leg. loin and shoulder of all the Jointed parts (Shoulder, leg. loin, sets and ends) were significantly different (P<0.05) among treatment groups. The values were 13.20, 13.56, 12.12 and 11.44 %; 12.38, 11.30, 13.19, 11.97 %; 13.60, 12.37, 10.91 and 11.31 % for goats on diets A, B, C and D for leg, loin and shoulder respectively. There was significant differences (P<0.05) among treatment means for all parts that constitute the offal (head, skin, feet, full gut and empty gut) except for empty gut. On the average Diet B comparatively, yielded lower offal weight. It can be concluded that goats fed Diet B (10% BNM performed better comparatively in terms of feed conversion ratio, dressing percentage and bone to lean ratio.