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The effect of substituting cowpea husk with <i>Daniellia oliveri</i> foliage on the performance of red Sokoto goat
Abstract
An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of replacing cowpea husk with Daniellia oliveri foliage on the performance of Red Sokoto Goats. Twenty five (25) Red Sokoto goats weighing on the average 13.00 ±1.2kg were divided into five groups with five animals per group. Each group was randomly assigned to the five dietary treatments in a completely randomized design (CRD). The diets compared were 100%, 75%, 50%, 25% and 0% cowpea husk and 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% D. oliveri foliage designated as T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 respectively. Result indicates significant (P<0.05) differences in all the parameters studied for chemical composition of the experimental diets. T5 (100% D. oliveri inclusion) had the highest values for all the parameters for chemical composition except for ether extract acid detergent lignin. All the parameters for the chemical composition was observed to increase with increase in the level D. oliveri foliage. The nutrients digestibility investigated were significantly affected (P<0.05). Dry matter (DM) crude fibre (CFD) and neutral detergent fibre digestibilities (NDFD) was observed to decrease with increase in the level of D. oliveri foliage while crude protein (CPD) and ether extract digestibility increase with increase in the level of D. oliveri. Nitrogen intake and faecal nitrogen output (g/day) of goats in T5 and T3 (15.72 and 4.81 g/day) were significantly higher than the other treatment groups. Urinary nitrogen was significantly (P<0.05) influenced by all the dietary treatment groups, with goats on T4 (4.88 g day-1) being the highest output and T5 (3.32 g/day) the lowest. There was no significant effect (p>0.05) of feeding D. oliveri foliage on carcass components and organ weights except for carcass length, carcass weight, weight of skin, dressing percentage and weight of heart. From the results, it can be concluded that D. oliveri foliage can be fed as sole diet or in combination with cowpea husk in the semi-arid environment.
Keywords: Browse, Daniellia oliveri, goats, Digestibility and Carcass
