ABSTRACT

A 90-day experiment was conducted to determine the effects of Rice stover, Cocoyam leaf and their combination (50:50) as crop residue-based supplement diets on the growth performance and morphometric traits of WAD goats. The twenty young female West African Dwarf (WAD) female goats used for the experiment were assigned randomly into 4 groups of animals and each group was randomly assigned to one of the treatments in a Completely Randomized Design. Each animal received the diet for 90 days. Parameters measured were feed intake, body weight (BWT), body weight gain (BWG, kg), chest girth (CG, cm), height at withers (HW, cm), height at rump (HR, cm), diagonal tnmk length (DTL, cm), body length (BL, cm) and fore leg length (FLL, cm). Economic parameters evaluated were total feed intake (TFI, kg), mean growth rate (MGR, kg/day), feed conversion ratio (FCR), cost conversion ratio (CCR, N/kg) and Diet utilization efficiency (DUE, %). Supplement total feed intake (kg/wk) was 4.48, 5.00 and 4.95 for Rice stover-based (RS), Cocoyam leaf-based (CL) and Rice Stover + Cocoyam leaf-based diets respectively. These values were not significantly different (P>0.05) between diets. FBW (kg), MWG (kg), CG (cm), DTL (cm), FLL (cm), were significantly different (P<0.05) between diets. RS+CL based supplement diets produced the best results on MWG, CG and FLL; followed by CL and RS based-diets. The control diet: Free-range Pasture browsing gave the best results of the four diets especially on MWG, CG, DTL and FLL. There were no significant differences (P>0.05) between diets for TFI (kg), MBW (kg), HW (cm), HR (cm), and BDL (cm). Economic evaluation of diets revealed that RS+CL supplement diet had the highest BWG (0.04 kg) and MGR (0.0004 kg/day); and a positive FCR (123.75). These values suggested that this diet performed better than CL and RS diets.

Key words: Body weight changes, Morphometric traits, Feed intake, Rice stover, Cocoyam leaf West African dwarf goat, Supplementary feeding.

 Table of Contents

ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................... viii

LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................................... ix

LIST OF PLATES ........................................................................................................................................ X

CHAPTER ONE ........................................................................................................................................... 1

1.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... -.................

1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT ............................................................................................................... 2

1.2 JUSTIFICATION ............................................................................................................................. 3

1.3 GLOBAL OBJECTIVE .................................................................................................................... 3

1.4 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................................. 3

CHAPTER TWO .......................................................................................................................................... 4

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................................. 4

FLOCK STRUCTURE ..................................................................................................................... 5

Potentials of WADGoat Production ............................................................................................ 6

CONSTRAINTS FACING WEST AFRICAN DWARF GOAT ..................................................... 9

Low Genetic Potential of goats ................................................................................................... 11

Seasonality of Availability of Feed and Scarce Water Resources .............................................. 13

High Ambient Temperature in the environment ......................................................................... 15

Effect of High Ambient Temperature on Feed Intake and Digestibility ..................................... 16

Effect of High Ambient Temperature on Production .................................................................. 16

Mortality in goat production ....................................................................................................... 18

SUPPLEMENT ARY DIET FEEDING IN GOAT PRODUCTION .............................................. 18

THE USE OF RICE STRAW IN FEEDING LIVESTOCK ........................................................... 19

Rice Distribution ......................................................................................................................... 19

Rice Straw Description ............................................................................................................... 20

Rice Straw Nutritive Value ......................................................................................................... 21

RICE STRAW PROCESSING ....................................................................................................... 24

Physical method of treating rice straw ........................................................................ .'............... 24

2.6 THE USE OF RICE STRAW IN FEEDING LIVESTOCK ........................................... .-............... 25

Cocoyam Distribution ................................................................................................................. 25

Cocoyam Leaf Description ......................................................................................................... 25

Cocoyam Leaf Nutritive Value ................................................................................................... 26

2.7 EFFECTS OF DIET ON CHANGES IN BODY TRAITS

CHAPTER THREE .

3.0 MATERIALS AND METHOD

3.1 LOCATION OF RESEARCH ............................................... 29

3.2 MANAGEMENT OF EXPERIMENT AL ANIMALS ................................................................... 29

3.3 DIETS AND DIET MIXJNG .......................................................................................................... 30

3.4 EXPERIMENTAL DIETS AND ALLOCATION ......................................................................... 31

3.5 FEED INTAKE AND ITS MEASUREMENT ................................................................................. 35

3.6 DATA COLLECTION ................................................................................................... .-............... 35

3.6.1 BODY WEIGHT MEASUREMENT ......................................................................................... 35

3.6.2 BODY TRAITS MEASUREMENT .......................................................................................... 36

3.7 Evaluation of Economic Parameters ............................................................................................... 37

3.8 Pasture sampling

3 .9 DATA COLLECTION AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

3.10 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN AND MODEL.. ................................................................................ 40

CHAPTER FOUR ....................................................................................................................................... 41

4.0 RESULTS ....................................................................................................................................... 41

CHAPTER FIVE ........................................................................................................................................ 46

5.0 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................. 46

CHAPTER SIX ............................................................................................................................ ·............... 49

6.0 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................... 49

6.1 RECOMMENDATION .................................................................................................................. 49

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................... 50

APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................................. 69