Effect of concentrate supplementation levels on growth and slaughter characteristics of SEA and SEA × Norwegian goats under on- farm conditions
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Date
2013-07-07
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer
Abstract
A 2×3 factorial experiment was carried out to eval-
uate the effect of goat genotypes and different concentrate levels
on growth and slaughter characteristics of Small East African ×
Norwegian crossbred (SEA × N) and Small East African (SEA)
goats. The three concentrate levels were T0 (no access to
concentrate), T66 (66 % access to ad libitum concentrate allow-
ance) and T100 (100 % access to ad libitum concentrate allow-
ance). Twenty-four castrated goats of each genotype (18 months
old with an average weight of 16.7±0.54 kg) were randomly
allotted into T0, T66 and T100 treatments. Daily feed intake and
fortnight body weight measurements were recorded for the
whole 84-day experimental period, after which the animals were
slaughtered. Feed intake of T100 animals was 536 g/day, which
was 183 g/day higher than that of the T66 group. Supplemented
goats (T66 and T100) had significantly (P<0.05) higher daily
gain and body condition score, and better feed conversion
efficiency and dressing percentage than T0 goats. The SEA
goats had higher (P<0.05) hot carcass weight (8.2 vs. 7.9 kg)
and showed better (P<0.05) dressing percentage than SEA × N
animals. Among supplemented goats, the cost of a 1-kg gain
under T66 was Tshs 213/= cheaper than T100 (US$1≈Tshs
1,500). It is concluded that goats should be grazed and
supplemented with 353 g concentrate/day for satisfactory fat-
tening performance and higher economic return on investment.
Description
Journal Article
Keywords
Concentrate supplementation, Fattening, Carcass, Economics