UDDER CHARACTERISTICS OF GRAVID WAD DOES FEDGUINEA GRASS (PANNICUM MAXIMUM) SUBSTITUTED WITH MULBERRY (MORUS ALBA) LEAVES WITH CASSAVA PEEL-BASED CONCENTRATE

Abstract

A five (5) months study was conducted to evaluate the udder characteristics of gravid West African Dwarf goats (WAD) fed mulberry leaves and guniea grass with cassava peels-based concentrates. Five experimental diets were formulated with diet 1as control which contains 100% Panicum maximum, while diets 2, 3, 4 and 5 contained 75% Panicum maximum + 25% Morus alba, 50% Panicum maximum+ 50% Morus alba, 25% Panicum maximum + 75% Morus alba and 100% Morus alba respectively. The diets were fed to 25 WAD Does with 5 Does per treatment and each served as replicate aged between 12-18 months. An average live weight of 10-13kg were assigned in a completely randomize design..Result showed that Mulberry inclusion has no significant (p>0.05) effect. The udder values obtained in the study were 19.83-22.33cm (UH), 30.33-37.17cm (UC),9.33-10.83cm (DBT),3.83-4.00cm (TL),4.17-4.50cm (TC),22.67-28.83cm (UW)and473.20-696.86cm3 (UV).The study revealed that diet 2 exerted the greatest effects on udder height, distance between teat, teat circumference, udder width and volume while diets 3 and 4 had their effects on udder circumference and teat length. It was recommended that dairy goat farmers could feed the combination of Morus alba leaves and Panicum maximum to their does for better udder development that can inturn improve their milk yields.