GROWTH RESPONSE OF WEST AFRICAN DWARF GOATS FED Chromolaena odorata LEAF MEAL

Abstract

This study investigated the performance of West African Dwarf (WAD) goats offered Chromolaena odorata leaf meal (COLM) as supplement to a guinea grass – based diet. Sun –dried Chromolaena odorata leaves were milled and incorporated into a compounded ruminant concentrate diet. Twenty growing WAD goats, aged 5 - 7 months of both sexes, were randomly allotted to four concentrate diets containing graded levels of sun –dried processed COLM at 0, 10, 20 and 30% to make Diets 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Results obtained indicate that goats on Diet 1 gave the best performance in terms of average daily gain (35.95 g/day) and feed conversion ratio (6.93), which was closely followed by goats on Diet 2 (25.0 g/day and 9.12 respectively). The study showed that COLM at 10 % level of inclusion possesses adequate nutritive value to support good growth of West African Dwarf goats without any deleterious effect.