Effects of Tithonia diversifolia, Trichanthera gigantea and Psophocarpus scandens on growth rate and digestibility in growing goats

Nguyen Thi Hong Nhan* and Nguyen Thiet**

* College of Agriculture and Applied Biology, Cantho University, Vietnam
nthnhan@ctu.edu.vn

^** Faculty of Rural Development, Cantho University, Vietnam

Abstract

The experiment was carried out in a Research Farm of Cantho University from July to October, 2011. Twelve weaned crossbred goats (Bachthao x local female) with an initial weight of 9.56 ± 1.29 kg and aged from 3 to 4 month were allocated to 4  treatments with 3 replicates per treatment and the trial period lasted 90 days. The four dietary treatments were LTDQ: 70% Para grass plus 30% Tithonia (DM basis); LTTG: 70% Para grass plus 30% Trichanthera (DM basis); DQĐR: 70% Para grass plus 15% Tithonia and 15% Psophocarpus (DM basis); TGĐR: 70% Para grass plus 15% Trichanthera and 15% Psophocarpus (DM basis).

Live weight, feed intake, feed conversion ratio were determined. After 25, 55 and 85 days of experimental feeding, a metabolism trial of 5-day duration was conducted on goats from each group in cages with provision for quantitative collection of faeces. Samples of feed offered, residue, faeces were collected from the metabolic trial subjected to preliminary treatment and preserved for subsequent chemical analysis.

There were improvements in intake, growth rate and digestibility when foliage of Trichanthera and Tithonia were mixed with that of from Psophocarpus Scandens.

Key words: crossbred goat, feed intake, protein-rich trees, productivity

Introduction

In the Mekong delta, the goat has been kept and taken care for a long time due to simple care, less disease, low investment, good tolerance in the poor condition and they could eat many kinds of tree with low nutrition. However, goats have not been considered and used as their potential in terms of supplying proper local feeds and these causes decreased production of goats. Some kinds of local trees grew well and were sources of protein feed such as Tithonia diversifolia, Trichanthera gigantea, Psophocarpus scandens could be used for animals. Previous studies found that Thithonia biomass was from 200-250 ton/ha/year (Nhan et al 2010) and Psophocarpus scandens was well adapted the Mekong delta condition and produced 27.4 ton DM/ha (Lam Thi Thanh Thu 2009). This study aimed to investigate the influence of Tithonia diversifolia, Trichanthera gigantea and Psophocarpus scandens on growth performance and digestibility of growing goats.

Materials and methods

Location of study

The experiment was carried out at the Research farm and Agricultural Practice, Cantho University from July to October 2011.

Experimental design

Twelve cross-bred goats with average live weight of 9.56 ± 1.29^­ kg, from 3 to 4 month of age were used in the present experiment and allocated in a randomized block design with four treatments and three replicates. The animals were housed in individual shed and free access to water at all time. The experiment was lasted within 90 days, consisting of four diets. The treatments were:

            LTDQ: 70% Para grass + 30% Tithonia diversifolia (as DM)

            LTTG: 70% Para grass + 30% Trichanthera gigantea (as DM)

            DQĐR: 70% Para grass + 30% Psophocarpus scandens (as DM) 

            TGĐR: 70% Para grass + 15% Trichanthera gigantea + 15% Psophocarpus scandens (as DM)

Before the experiment, the animals were drenched against internal parasites and FMD. In all treatments, natural grass, Triachanthera and legume werecut in length of 2-3cm and well-mix based on the dry matter of feed. Goats were fed twice a day at 7:00 and 15:00 and supplied mineral block cake hang from the side of cage. The composition of mineral block cake consisted of 15% bone meal, 15% oyster meal, 15% salt, 15% lime, 20% cement, 20% clay.

Feeding

Para grass, Tithonia diversifolia, Trichanthera gigantea were cultivated at the experimental farm. Psophocarpus scandens was harvested from nature. Chemical composition of individual feeds and diets are presented in Table 1 and Table 2.

Data collection and measurement

Chemical compositions of ingredients and ration: DM, OM were according to AOAC (2001); ADF, NDF analysis followed the protocol developed by Van Soest (1991).

Feed intake of grass, legume and Trichantera were estimated daily by the difference between DM of amounts offered and refused.

Nutrient digestibility was determined using the method of Mc Donald (2002). The digestive experiment started from 25-30 days for first period, 55-60 days for second period and 85-90 days for last period and daily collected the sample (feed offered and refused, feces) during five consecutive days were performed. After the end of experiment, feed samples were pooled and analyzed for DM, OM, CP, ash according to AOAC (2001). Faeces were kept in a 10% sulphuric acid solution to prevent nitrogen loss. After weighing, an amount of 10% was stored in a deep freezer for further analysis. The determination of dry matter (DM) was by drying at 100^oC for 24 h, organic matter (OM) by ashing at 550^oC for 4 h and crude protein by Kjeldahl technique (AOAC, 1998). Neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) were estimated by the method of Van Soest et al (1991).

Statistical analysis

All data were analyzed using General Linear Model and run on Minitab (Minitab Release 13.2, 2000). When the F-test is significant, the Tukey's test for paired comparisons is used to compare means.

Results and discussion

Nutrition intake of experimental goats

DMI in first period (1-30 day) did not differ among treatments (Table 3). However, there was a significant difference in DMI during the second and the third period. In general, DMI in legume diets tended to be higher than others. The present experiment showed that goat had behavior in feeding selection.

Means of DMI in DQĐR was greater than others, particularly LTDQ and LTTG treatments. These might be due to feeding selection behavior in goat, because DQĐR treatment was supplied with two kinds of legume consisting of Tithonia diversifolia, Psophocarpus scandens. This result was similar with study of Nguyen Van Hon (2007) when goats were provided para grass (50-70% of diet) and DMI was 300 – 400 g/head/day (41-51g/W^0.75). In addition, Nguyen Van Hon (2007) reported that goats fed a diet of 75% Vetiver and 25% legume such as Leuceana leucocephalata, Sesbania grandiflora, Trichanthera resulted in DMI of 309-370 g/head/day or 45-53 g/W^0.75. Conversely, Nguyen Thi Thu Hong et al (2005) found that DMI was 547 g/head/day with 100% para grass and much higher than in comparison with the present study. But the study of Nguyen Thi Thu Hong did not mention about the goat breed and may be different in body weight.

According to Dinh Van Binh and Nguyen Quang Suc (2001), DM demand of growing goat was about 3% of BW and different period was different requirement for DM. In the present experiment, DMI was from 277-374 g/head/day or 2.3-3% of BW. DMI is also dependent on the quality of diet and body weight of the goat. Kanani (2006) found that DMI was 599 g/head/day with 19kg body live weight of goat or 3% BW when goats were fed with diet of 56% Sudan grass and 44% Leuceana leucocephala. Similarly, Nguyen Van Hao (1990) reported that there was an improvement of DMI when rice straw was replaced by Gliricidia multica at 30, 40, 50% in diet of goats. In general, most of research found that supplement with legume has improved DMI.

OMI of goats from the second period and average of experiment was different among treatments (Table 4). OMI in DQĐR was higher than in comparison with other treatments. This result was similar to that of reported by Nguyen Van Hon (2007), in which OMI was 272 g/head/day or 37.1 g/W^0.75 when goats were fed with 75% Vetiver grass and 25% Trichanthera.

CPI of goat in each period and average of experiment was different among treatments (Table 5). The difference appeared clearly between LTTG and DQĐR, the mean values were respectively 41.04 and 59.97 g/head/day or 6.84 and 10.84 g/W^0.75. According to Ledin (2005) growing goat from 10-15 kg of body weight required about 60g crude proteins for 50 g weigh gain per day and was similar with the present study, CPI ranged from 41-83 g/head/day with average of weight gain from 50-65 g/head/day.

Growth rate

Average of daily weight gain increased with legume supplement. The daily weight gain was 50.26 to 65.56 g/head/day and was in agreement with the reports of Nguyen Van Hon (2007), who used 75% Vetiver and 25% Leuceana leucocephala for growing goats. Conversily, Kaligis (1998) found that daily weight gain of goat was from 72.4 to 80.3 g/head/day with 40% Leuceana in the diet. This difference could be due to the higher level of Leuceana in comparison with the present study. The results of this study additionally indicated that there were the beneficial influences of legume supplement.  

Feed conversion was not different among treatments and mean values were 5 to 7 kg DM/kg weight gain and similar with study of Nguyen Van Hon (2007) when goats were supplied with 25% Leuceana.

Apparent digestibility

Supplement with sole or combined legume significantly improved the coefficients of digestibility, particularly DQĐR, TGĐR treatments (Table 7). Khamparn Pathoummalangsy et al (2007) reported that nutritive digestibility of goats was lower than this study when goats were provided 100% Thithonia in the diet. This difference might result from the high level of tannin when increasing level of Thithonia supplement.

Conclusions

·        Using Thithonia, Trichanthera or combination between Tithonia and Psophocarpus scandens, Trichanthera and Psophocarpus scandens could replace up to 30% of para grass in the growing goat diet.

·        Tithonia and Psophocarpus scandens provided better results on feed intake, digestibility and daily weight gain.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thanks the MEKARN project, financed by the Sida-SAREC agency for supporting this study and my student Ms. Thuy Anh, Thuan and Trang for their technical help.

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