Eh. Goromela et al., INDIGENOUS BROWSE LEAVES AS SUPPLEMENTS TO DUAL-PURPOSE GOATS IN CENTRAL TANZANIA, Livestock production science, 47(3), 1997, pp. 245-252
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.