The Effects of Dietary Substitution of Dry Forage with Corn Silage on Dry Matter Intake, Production and Reproductive Performance, and Nutrient Digestibility of Mahabadi Lactating Goats

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to investigate the effects of dietary substitution of corn silage on dry matter intake, production and reproductive performance, and nutrient digestibility of Mahabadi lactating goats. In this case, a total of twenty pregnant female goats with 2-5 years old were selected and attributed into two groups of ten goats regarding to age, weight and the numbers of calving. The experiment was done based on completely randomized design. Experimental treatments consisted of diet control and dietary substitution of forage part with corn silage at 20 percentage of dry matter. The ratios of concentrate to forage in diet were 45 to 55 and 57 to 43 in pregnancy and lactation periods, respectively. Results showed that dietary inclusion of corn silage had no significant effects (P>0.05) on body weight and metabolic body weight alterations in pregnancy and lactation periods. Feeding corn silage didn't affect (P>0.05) daily and metabolic feed intake in both pregnancy and lactation times, colostrum and daily milk production, reproductive parameters of goats, and kids weight. Feeding silage corn silage in diet led to significant increases (P<0.05) in organic, organic in dry matter, and crude protein digestibility and tended (P=0.09) to increase in neutral detergent fiber digestibility. In general, results indicated that dietary inclusion of corn silage not only had no adverse effects on reproductive performance of pregnant goats, but also it could improve nutrient digestibility of Mahabadi lactating goats.