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FEEDS AND FEEDING OF SHEEP AND GOAT

ABSTRACT

Comparisons were made between 25 Ethiopian rams and 25 Galla goats for voluntary intake Two separate studies to evaluate alternative methods of processing Acacia nilotica pods and level of replacement of cotton seed cake with Acacia pods; and its effect on nutrient composition, feed intake, digestibility of nutrients, heamatological parameters and general performance of Galla goats and Ethiopian rams were conducted. The aims were to explore cheaper, safer and easier method of processing Acacia pods and to explore the advantages of Acacia nilotica pods as a cheaper source of protein to livestock; in place of the highly competitive and costly conventional sources of protein to livestock. Differently processed A. nilotica pods contained 96.13%, 96.47%, 97.52%, 97.21% and 98.12% dry matter, 12.69%, 12.13%, 15.06%, 13.25%, and 10.13% crude protein; 2.81%, 2.33%, 5.51%, 9.46%, and 4.74% hemicelluloses, for sun-dried (T1), crushed (T2), soaked and milled (T3), sun-dried and milled (T4), and sun-dried milled with charcoal (T5) respectively. Sun-dried Acacia pods contained 0.05% Sodium, 4.00% (mg/kg) Calcium, 0.03% Iron, 0.01% Zinc, 0.14% Magnesium and 1.00% Potassium. Tannin content in differently processed Acacia pods were 1.20, 1.30, 0.90, 0.10 and 0.80 mg/100kg in treatments T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 respectively. Twenty five Galla goats (bucks) of average age of 10 months and averagedly weighing 10.2 ± 0.4 kg were used in a Completely Randomized Block Design (CRBD) experiment, to evaluate the effect of processing A. nilotica pods and dried sugar cane forage (basal diet) on feed intake, nutrient digestibility and performance of Galla goats. Dietary treatments significantly (P<0.05) affected daily feed intake (DFI), feed conversion ratio (FCR), weight gain (WG), and final body weight (FBW). Digestibilities of CP, EE, NDF, and HC were significantly (P<0.05) affected across dietary treatments. Nitrogen intake (NI) and faecal nitrogen (FN) differed significantly (P<0.05) across dietary treatments. Packed cell volume (PCV), haemoglobin (Hb) and total plasma protein (TPP) were not significantly (P>0.05) affected by dietary treatments. It was therefore concluded that sun-drying Acacia pods was preferred to other methods of processing used in this study because it gave better results in terms of FI, WG, FCR, and FBW. It was also found to be cheaper and easier to process. It was also concluded that 25% of sun-dried Acacia pods can be used to replace CSC in the diets of Galla goats without having any adverse effect on nutrient digestibility, haematological parameters and performance in them. Therefore, weight loss amongst Galla goats can be highly reduced by incorporating Acacia pods in their diets; especially during periods of feed scarcity, which is a common experience in the Northern part of Nigeria.