Forty rift valley goats (20 male and 20 female) were used in a 90-day trial to assess the feeding value of maize stover from maize tree cropping systems with different forms of acacia seed. Treatments comprised ad libtium maize stover alone (T1), maize stover with 334 g of ground acacia seed (T1) maize stover with whole acacia seed (T3), maize stover with 180 g of noug cake (T4) and maize stover with 470 g of acacia fruit (T5). The supplementary treatments had significantly (p<0.01) different effect on body weight change of Rift Valley goats. Moderate average daily gains (g/head) were recorded for goats supplemented with T2 (8.3+5.22) and T 5 (5.5+5.22). Goats supplemented with T3 and T, were not able to maintain their body weight, though the average daily weight loss was small compared to those receiving T, (control) treatment. The weight loss was probably related to low nutritional quality of the maize stover which resulted in inferior intake of maize stover and hence total dry mater (DM) intake. Nevertheless, the significantly higher total DM intake and slight increase in average daily gain observed in this study for goats on T2 and T, showed the potential of maize-tree -cropping systems to support moderate performance during years of severe feed shortage. However, further intervention is required to improve growth performance of Rift Valley goats from this cropping system.

English

0103|AL-Maize Program|AGRIS 0102|AJ

CIMMYT Publications Collection