Effect of feeding different proportions of  Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes)  and Sesbania sesban foliage in the diet on intake, digestibility and N retention of growing goats
 

 Bui Phan Thu Hang, Truong Thi Bich Phuong,  Vo Lam, and T R Preston*

Angiang University, Faculty of Agriculture & Natural Resources, Vietnam,
bpthang@agu.edu.vn
* UTA (Colombia), Socorro, Santander, Colombia

The study was a Latin-square design, 4 x 4 arrangement with four male weaned crossbred goats (Bachthao x local female) with an initial weight of 11.1 kg and age from 3 to 4 months. The diets were:

·        Water hyacinth leaves ad lib + 1% of  LW on DM basis of Sesbania sesban foliage  (WLS1)

·        Water hyacinth leaves ad lib + 2% of  LW on DM basis of Sesbania sesban foliage  (WLS2)

·        Water hyacinth foliage (leaves+stems) ad lib + 1% of  LW on DM basis of Sesbania sesban foliage  (WHS1)

·        Water hyacinth foliage (leaves+stems) ad lib + 2% of  LW on DM basis of Sesbania sesban foliage  (WHS2)

Goats consuming diets containing water hyacinth leaves had higher DM intake than when they were fed the leaves plus stems. However, there were no differences in N retention.  

Key words: digestibility, goats, N retention,  DM intake, Sesbania sesban, Water hyacinth