Preliminary study On The Use Of <i>Margaritaria Discoidea</i> Leaf In The Diet Of West African Dwarf Goats

Abstract

A preliminary estimation of the chemical composition of Margaritaria discoidea and its effects on West African dwarf goats in terms of dry matter intake, growth rate and feed conversion in a 90 - day feeding trial was carried out. Margaritaria discoidea was accepted at 2.42 to 3.42% body weight and rich in gross energy (4.512Kcal/g) that will be more than sufficient for daily energy requirement of small to medium size breeds of goats. The maximum growth rate (73.3g/d) optimum dry matter intake (0.39kg/w^0.75kg) and feed conversion (0.534) were promoted by 50% browse plus 50% concentrate diet. However, feeding M.discoidea leaves as sole diet still promotes satisfactory growth performance (46.1g/d) over time and completely eliminates the cost of concentrate diet in goat production. From the predictive function, there was a significant relationship between the level of browse fed and growth rate (r= 0.87, P<0.05). It appears that M. discoidea has good potentials as fodder for dry season feeding in small ruminant production.

Keywords: Chemical composition, growth rate, goat, Margaritaria leaf