CARCASS YIELD OF WEST AFRICAN DWARF (WAD) BUCKS FED GMELINA ARBOREA LEAVES SUPPLEMENTED WITH BREWER’S DRIED GRAIN (BDG) AND MAIZE OFFAL IN EQUAL PROPORTION.

Abstract

The study was conducted to evaluate the effect on carcass, and visceral organs of the West African Dwarf (WAD) goat fed Gmelina arborea leaves supplemented with brewer’s dried grain (BDG) and maize offal in equal proportion. Twenty (20) West African Dwarf bucks with average weight of 8.04 kg were randomly allocated to four treatments with five animals per treatment in a complete CRD. Treatment one (T1) was given Gmelina arborea leaves ad libitum. Animals on treatment two (T2), three (T3) and four (T4) were fed 100, 200, and 300 g/head/day of a mixture of Brewers dried grain and maize offal and Gmelina arborea leaves ad libitum. The chemical composition of diets during the study shows that parameters across the treatments were significantly affected (P<0.05). Significant difference was observed across treatments in the head weight and the dressed carcass weight. It was observed that T1, which received only Gmelina arborea leaves i.e 0% MO/BDG, consistently showed the lowest values in the most parameters of carcass yield. Treatments on concentrate mixture i.e T2, T3 and T4 with 100% MO/BDG, 200% MO/BDG and 300% MO/BDG respectively showed the best performance. The superiority of T2, T3 and T4 was also shown clearly in dressed carcass. It seemed that animals on diets containing MO/BDG better utilized feed for meat production.