GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF RED SOKOTO BUCKS FED COWPEA HAY AND TWO CULTIVARS OF SWEET POTATO VINE

Résumé

This study evaluated the effect of feeding two cultivars of sweet potato vines (Danchina and King J) and Cowpea hay (serving as control diet) on the growth performance and carcass characteristics of Red Sokoto bucks. Twelve bucks were assigned into three dietary treatments; CH (Cowpea hay), DC (Danchina) and KJ (King J) in a randomized complete block design with four animals per treatments. The result obtained indicated that bucks from the treatment fed King J sweet potato vine cultivars had
higher feed intake (988.66g/day) followed by Danchina (906.66g/day) and the least were the Cowpea hay (883.33g/day). There were significant (P<0.05) differences between the dietary treatment in terms of empty body weight, cold carcass weight and real dressing percentage. Bucks fed Danchina and King J sweet potato vine cultivars had significantly higher rumen contents, lungs and kidney. It is concluded that Danchina and King J sweet potato vine cultivars can be fed to animals as a replacement for cowpea hay since they were proven to be nutritionally good for enhanced growth performance and carcass characteristics of the experimental animals.