Effect of supplementing cassava tops and sweet potato vines on performance of growing goats

Ngunga, D.P. 2014. Effect of supplementing cassava tops and sweet potato vines on performance of growing goats. MSc thesis. Morogoro, Tanzania: Sokoine University of Agriculture.

Thirty six growing crossbred of Norwegian and local goats were used in a 90 days study to evaluate the effect of supplementing Cassava tops and Sweet potato vines on feed intake, growth and digestibility. Twenty four goats (12 males and 12 females) with mean body weight of 11.4 ± 0.65 kg were used for growing and intake study whereas twelve (12) male goats with mean body weight of 14.5± 0.54 kg were used in the in vivo digestibility study. The goats were assigned to four supplementary diets in a randomized complete block design. The supplementary diets consisted of hominy meal (67%), Premix (2%), and either SSC (31%), CT (31%), SPV (31%) or CT+SPV (31%). The goats were fed a basal diet consisting of Brachiaria brizantha hay ad libitum and water was available all the time. Daily average dry matter intake (DMI) was similar between treatments and was about 501g/goat/day. Similarly no significant difference was observed for crude protein (CP) intake between all treatments during study period. A significant difference (P<0.01) in ME intake was observed during experimental period. Growth ranged between 30.56 and 39g/day and was significantly different (P<0.05) between treatments. Significant differences (P<0.05) in feed conversion ratio (FCR) between treatments were observed. The digestibility study showed differences in DM, OM, CP, NDF between treatments (P<0.05). Goats supplemented with CT (T2) had higher revenue value obtained from live weight gain/animal compared to T1, T3 and T4. Goats supplemented with CT supported better growth and feed conversion, high N retention and revenue from live weight gain compared with SPV, SPV + CT and SSC. It was concluded that Cassava tops and Sweet potato vines can be used as potential protein sources to growing goats and other ruminants when poor quality roughages hay fed to small ruminants.