Performance Of West Africa Dwarf (Wad) Goats Fed Panicum Maximum With Different Browses:- Nwokoro, Emmanuel C.

ABSTRACT

An experiment was conducted to compare the performance of West African Dwarf (WAD) goats fed Panicum maximum (PM) with Manniophytum fulvum (MF), Alchornea cordifolia (AC), and Gmelina arborea (GA) combination, supplemented with concentrate diet. Twelve WAD goats were divided into four groups of 3 animals each in Completely Randomized Design with each animal serving as a replicate. The treatment diets T1, T2, T3 and T4 all had PM and concentrate common, while T, T; and T, had in addition MF, AC, and GA respectively. Feeding trial lasted 8 weeks. Data collected include feed intake, weight gain and linear body measurements, feed conversion ratio. For grass intake, the T, 31306.40g exhibit significantly (p<005) difference than T2 17914.40g, T; 17923.80g and T, 18116.00g respectively. The total body weight change was 3.83kg for T,, 4.57kg for T2 , 4.33kg for T; and 4.00kg for T4 respectively. Daily Dry Matter Intake T, (740.10g), T; (708.20g), T; (698.10g) and T, (701.50g), Daily Body Weight changes (g) were T; (68.33), T; (80.67), T, (77.33) and T, (71.33), which was similar (p>0.05) for T 2. and T3 but significantly (p<0.05) higher in T2 than T1 and T. Feed conversion ratio which were 10.84, 8.78, 9.03 and 9.83 for T,, T, T; and T, respectively was similar (p>0.05) in T; T; and T4 groups but the T» group was better (p<0.05) than the T; group. Daily Heart girth change (cm) was T 1 (0.0 l ), T, (0.03), T; (0.02) and T4 (0.02), Daily Body length change (cm) was T, (0.02). T; (0.03), T; (0.03) and T, (0.02) and Daily Height at Wither change (cm) was T; (0.02), T2 (0.03), T3 (0.02) and T, (0.02) respectively, exhibit no significantly (p>0.05) difference among the treatments. From this study, the performance of West Africa Dwarf goats on T2 • and T; fed MF and AC with combination of PM and concentrate performed better than those on the other groups. The use of MF or AC as a combination with PM and supplemented with concentrate is recommended for goat fattening in the tropical rain forest.