Gmelina arborea leaves with cassava peel silage as feed resource for West African Dwarf goats in South West Nigeria

Abstract

Inadequate forage in quality and quantity during the dry season is the major constraint in ruminant production in Nigeria, and this negatively influences the performance of these animals. In an effort to surmount this limitation, Gmelina arborea leaves (GML) and cassava peel (CsP) were ensiled at different proportions to evaluate the physio-chemical quality, intake and growth response by West African dwarf (WAD) goats fed the diets. The varying proportions of GML and CsP were mixed as follows; 100GML, 90GML+10CsP, 70GML+30CsP and 50GML+50CsP. The mixtures were ensiled for 21 days.   Sixteen West African dwarf (WAD) goats aged 7-8 months weighing between 8.45- 8.48kg housed in individual pens were used to determine feed intake, growth rate and feed conversion ratio for 90 days. Completely randomized design was adopted for the study. Silages with CsP  had pleasant smell and pH range of 3.7-4.7 while the silage without CsP  had non-pleasant smell with pH of 9.5.  The pH and temperature reduced with increasing level of cassava peel while the smell, texture and appearance improved with increasing level of cassava peel. Dry matter, crude protein, neutral detergent fibre and non- structural carbohydrate ranged from 26.25-30.75, 12.11-13.93, 27.45-41.39 and 34.47-50.22% respectively. Dry matter intake and daily weight gain, varied significantly (P < 0.05) with increasing proportion of cassava peel and highest at equal proportions of Gmelina arborea and cassava peel with values ranging from 246.91-486.79g/day, 13.22-35.11g/day respectively. Feed conversion ratio was significantly different (P<0.05) and values ranged from 13.87- 18.68 with animals on diet 50%GML+50%CsP having the least value while those on 100%GML had the highest value. Conclusively, the inclusion of cassava peel to Gmelina arborea leaves enhanced silage quality and its nutrient compositions, as well as improved feed intake and weight gain by WAD goats at 50%GML inclusion.