INDIGENOUS BROWSE LEAVES AS SUPPLEMENTS TO DUAL-PURPOSE GOATS IN CENTRAL TANZANIA

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the digestibility o f Albizia harveyi (AH), Delonix elnta (DE) and Grewia similis (GS) dri ed leaves and the effect of feeding the leaf meals on the performance of goats fed low quality hay. The four treatments consisted of the thr ee browse species combined with Cenchrus ciliaris (CC) hay and a contr ol with concentrate + CC hay or pure CC hay. Data from twelve bucks in the digestibility experiment and twelve does with single kids in the production experiment were analyzed. All the browse species had high c rude protein contents (17-20.4%) and low content of neutral detergent fibre (31.3-60.7%) and acid detergent fibre (17.9-34.7%). AH had the h ighest fibre content of the browses but lower than that of grass hay. Results indicate that irrespective of the higher concentration of phen olic compounds, DE leaves were better digested than leaves from AH and GS. Supplementation of low quality hay with GS leaves and concentrate increased total DM and nutrient intake but reduced DM intake of the b asal diet. Does fed with GS leaves had significantly higher milk yield and kid weight gains. The poor performance of the DE supplemented goa ts could be associated with the presence of the relatively high levels of total soluble and soluble condensed tannins in the leaves, whereas in the case of AH, leaf dust and hair could have lowered leaf intake. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.