Intake, performance and digestibility of West African dwarf goats supplemented with graded levels of Grewia pubescens and panicum maximum.

Abstract

A trial was carried out with 16 females West African Dwarf (WAD) goats to assess their dry matter intake, digestibility and liveweight gain when fed Grewia pubescens as supplement to panicum maximum. The levels of inclusion of G, pubescens were 0, 25, and 75%. The highest nutrient intakes occur at 50% levels of supplementation being 61, 01, 54, 40, 8, 44, 26.07, 19.29, and 6.57gd 3w0.75 for DM, OM, CP, NDF, ADF, and lignin respectively. These were significantly (P<0.05) higher than other levels of intake. The dry matter digestibility (DMD) coefficient Increased significantly (P<0.01) with increased inclusion levels of G, pubescens supplementation. It increased from  52.24% at 0%, which the control or supplement diet to the highest of 80.42% at 50% level of supplementation. Thereafter, the DMD decreased to 79.06% at 75% level of inclusion though the decrease was not significant (P>0.05). The digestibility  coefficient of OM and CP at 50% level of supplementation were also highest being 81.86% and 84.23%  respectively. Digestibility of other nutrient followed the same trend as for DM, OM, and CP digestibility. The liveweight gain of the animals range from 8.81g d-3 for unsupplemented to 10.95, 18.33, and 20.71g d-3 for 25, 50, and 75% level of inclusion respectively. The differences were significant(P>0.05) between 50% and 75% levels of inclusion. The nutritive value index was highest (61.33) for 50% level of inclusion and significant (P<0.05) from other levels of supplementation which, were in turn, higher (P<0.05) than that of unsupplemented animals.