Water restriction in goats during hot-dry season in the humid tropics: feed intake and weight gain

Abstract

Twelve non-pregnant female goats (West African Dwarf, WAD and Red Sokoto, RS) were used to investigate the effect of volumetric (0%, 33% and 67%) water restriction on feed intake and weight gain over a period of eight weeks. The goats are of 2 age groups: younger and older than 1 year. The experiment was arranged in a modified cross-over design with three treatment periods of 1 week each. In-between each treatment period was a 2-week wash-out period, when the effect of the previous was expected to have worn off. The average water intake (WI) was determined for the first 7 days of the experiment when all the animals were given water ad libitum. The 3 treatments were: (i) ad libitum supply of water every day; (ii) 33% reduction from average WI; and (iii) 67% reduction. Water drunk had positive and significant (p < 0.001) correlation with feed intake in young and old WAD (r= 0.490 and 0.620 respectively) and RS ( > 1 year old; r= 0.615). All the four classes of goats showed positive highly significant (p < 0.001) correlation between water drunk and daily weight gain (r= 0.408, 0.484, 0.555 and 0.422 respectively for WAD ( < 1 and > 1 year old) and RS ( < 1 and > 1 year old goats).