Supplemental Effects of Cassava Sieviate Meal with Panicum Maximum as Basal Diet on Growth Performance of West African Dwarf Goat

Abstract

The effects of feeding diets containing cassava fufu sieviate meal (FSM) on growth performance of West African Dwarf (WAD) goats were investigated. Thirty six, 5-8 week old WAD goats with an average weight of 6.52 kg were randomly distributed into four groups to assess four treatment diets. Four diets T₁, T₂, T₃, and T₄, were formulated to contain FSM at 0%, 20%, 40% and 60% FSM respectively, in a completely randomized design. Each animal received a designated treatment diet in the morning for 98 days. Feed offered was based on 3.5% body weight per day; the animals in addition were fed a kg wilted chopped Panicum maximum later in the day as basal diet to enhance rumination and chime chewing. The FSM result showed high dry matter and energy values. The fibre fractions were relatively low in the FSM and moderate for the experimental diets. Growth performance data indicated that body weight gain and feed conversion ratio were significantly improved (p<0.05) and better for goats on FSM diets compared with the control. Dietary treatments, however did not influence (p>0.05) feed intake, dry matter intake and dry matter intake as percentage of body weight. It was therefore concluded that replacement of 60% of maize offal with FSM resulted in superior growth performance of WAD goat over the control diet.