GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF WEST AFRICAN DWARF GOATS FED BOILED, DRIED Gmelina arborea AND SUNDRIED Moringa oleifera LEAVES

Abstract

Sixteen West African Dwarf goats weighing 5.5kg to 10.7kg were used to determine the growth performance of west African dwarf goats fed boiled dried Gmelina arborea leaves and sundried Moringa oleifera leaves. The goats were allotted randomly into four (4) treatments groups of four (4) animals each having two (2) replicates each in a completely randomized design. Goats in T1 were fed concentrate (50g) and Panicum maximum (50g) (control diet), T2 were fed concentrate (50g) and boiled dried Gmelina arborea (50g) leaves, goats in T3 were fed concentrate (50g) and sundried Moringa oleifera (50g) leaves while goats in T4 were fed concentrate (50g) and mixture of fresh Gmelina arborea (25g) and fresh Moringa oleifera (25g) leaves respectively. These were used to feed the animals in a completely randomize design. The Experiment lasted for 10 weeks. The animals were weighed on weekly basis. Data collected were analyzed using the one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) while the mean were separated using the Duncan multiple range test. The result from this study shows that animals in T4 fed concentrate with mixture of fresh Gmelina arborea leaves and fresh Moringa oleifera leaves performed better in respect to feed intake having a record of 2.88+0.008 followed by T1 2.80+0.012 while experimental animals in T2 and T3 had the lowest value 2.76+0.012 and 2.79+0.0119 respectively, animals in T4 gained weight while those in T1, T2 and T3 lost weight. The study suggest the use of fresh Gmelina arborea leaves and fresh Moringa oleifera leaves in feeding goats due to the fact that they are efficiently utilized by the animals and their availability even at the peak of dry season.