Prosopis Juliflora Pod as a Replacer for Concentrate Supplement for Afar Goats in Ethiopia Effects on Intake, Body Weight and Digestibility

Abstract

Thirty yearling Afar goats of mean weight 14.4 kg ± 1.3 (mean ± SD) were used to measure the effects of feeding increasing amounts of ground prosopis juliflora pod (GPJP) to replace a commercial concentrate mixture (CCM) as a supplement to a basal diet of Rhodes grass hay. Measurements of feed intake, live weight change and digestibility were made. Animals were equally divided into five dietary treatments in a randomized complete block design based on their initial body weight. The feeding trial was continued for ninety days followed by a seven days of digestibility analysis. The treatments were 300 g/day CCM or mixtures of CCM and GPJP viz : CCM (control), 0.25 GPJP : 0.75 CCM, 0.5 GPJP : 0.5 CCM, 0.75 GPJP : 0.25 CCM, 1.0 GPJP: 0 CCM. In addition 300 g Rhodes grass hay was used as a basal diet in daily basis with all the treatment levels. Results of total dry matter and nutrient intakes, growth rate and feed conversion were appreciable as the proportion of ground Prosopis juliflora pod in the total ration increased to 0.5. However, these values dropped sharply when the replacement proportion increased to 1.0. The dry matter and nutrient digestibility also found to decrease (P<0.001) gradually with the increasing level of replacement. It was concluded that replacement of commercial concentrate with ground Prosopis juliflora pod at the proportion of 0.5 showed no adverse effect on growth and digestibility of Afar goats.

Keywords: Prosopis juliflora, Pod, Concentrate, Afar goats, Digestibility