Matching
Livestock Systems with Available Resources
MEKARN Regional Conference 2007
Effect of method of offering Trichanthera
gigantea foliage on feed intake of goat kids
Ly Thi
Luyen, Nguyen Thi Mui* and T R Preston**
Goat
and Rabbit Research Centre, Sontay, Hatay, Vietnam
* National
Institute of Animal Husbandry, Hanoi, Vietnam
** UTA-TOSOLY, Socorro, Colombia
The study was carried out
, from March to June 2006 to
evaluate the effect of method of offering foliage of Trichanthera gigantea
on
feed intake of goat kids given a basal diet of concentrate and cassava root chips.
. Twenty five (Saanen* India) and
(Alpine* India) weaned kids with an initial weight of 14.5 kg and at 4 months of
age were used in five treatments in
a completely randomised design with different feeding methods of
Trichanthera gigantea. The treatments were:
TGH, Trichanthera hanging;
TGHG,
Trichanthera hanging +
Guinea grass; TGC,
Trichanthera after
chopping; TGW, Trichanthera
wilted and CTL, Guinea grass + Jackfruit foliage + Hay mixed concentrate.
In all cases the basal diet was cassava root chips and concentrates. The experiment was conducted
during 84 days.
Dry matter intakes
were: 154,
105, 175 and 21 g/day for TGH, TGHG, TGC and TGW, with live weight gains of 34.0,
50.0, 44.1, 34.9. LW gain on the CTL treatment was 56.3 g/day.
It is concluded
that it is better to
feed Trichanthera foliage in fresh form than after wilting.