Performances of Pregnant-Crossbred Ettawa Goats Given Pellet Concentrate Containing “Sesbania grandiflora”

Abstract

The use of by-product of fried-snack industry as a main material of mash concentrate and supplemented with fresh “sesbania grandiflora” for crossbred Etawa goats could maintain the productivity. But the mash concentrate intakes were decreasedby increasing the levels of the fresh “sesbania grandiflora” leaf. This study was conducted to evaluate the performances of pregnant crossbreed-Ettawa goats given pellet concentrate containing “sesbania grandiflora” leaf. Sixteen pregnant-crossbreed Ettawa goats with the initial body weight of 34,6 ± 3,4 kgwere divided into 2 groups of eight does each and placed in metabolic individual cages and given one of 2 type concentrates treatments (T₁: mash + fresh sesbania grandiflora leafand T₂: pelletconsist of mash and dry “sesbania grandiflora” leaf). The goats were fed basal diets of fresh field grass and banana peel,and concentrate consisted of rice bran, by-product of fried-snack industry, urea and mineral mix with the proportions of 47,5% : 47,5% : 3% : 2%.The variables observed were  concentrate, field grass, total DM  andwater intakes;ADG and thebirth weight of kids. The results showed that there were significant increase (P<0.05) on pellet concentrate intakes, total dry matter intakes,ADG of does, and water intakes, but thefield grass intakes and birth weight of kids were not significantly influenced  (P>0.05) by feeding pellet concentrate. There were tendencies, however, the field grass intakes of the goats fed pellet concentrate and thebirth weight of kids were higher than thoseon the goats fed mash concentrate.It is concluded that feeding of pellet concentrate containing dry “sesbania grandiflora” leaf to pregnant-crossbred Etawa goats is more efficient than that of feeding mash concentrate with fresh “sesbania grandiflora” leaf. It is suggestedthat if the pregnant crossbred-Etawa goats were fed pelletconcentrate containing dry sesbania leaf, drinking water must be available ad-libitum.