Effect of gmelina (Gmelina arborea) leaf meal based diets on growth performance of West African Dwarf bucks

Abstract

Six West African Dwarf bucks of 5-8 months of age averaging 6.78 kg were used to study the effect of Gmelina arborea leaf meal based diets on their feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio and feed conversion efficiency. The bucks were randomly assigned to three treatments with two bucks per treatment in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The bucks were fed 0, 10 and 20% Gmelina arborea leaf meals in the concentrate diets, respectively. Data were collected for eight weeks on feed intake and weight gain. Proximate analysis showed lower crude protein in Treatment A (TA) (16.09%) than in Treatment B (TB) (18.68%) and Treatment C (TC) (18.92%). The values observed for TA for ash and fat content were lower than those observed for treatment B and treatment C. Metabolizable energy was significantly (p<0.05) different. Significant differences (p<0.05) existed for values recorded by the goats fed the different experimental diets. Goats fed treatment B and C had similar (p>0.05) feed intake (280.35 and 273.58 g dayG-1 , respectively) but higher (p<0.05) than goats fed treatment A.A similar (p>0.05) weight gain was recorded in treatment B (2.82+0.23 kg) and C (2.80+0.21 kg) which was significantly higher than that recorded in treatment A (1.80+0.21 kg). Feed conversion ratio was best (p<0.05) in treatment C (5.47) followed by the one in treatment B (5.58) and treatment A (8.28). The study therefore suggests 20% inclusion of Gmelina arborea leaves in the diet of West African Dwarf bucks as the optimum level for better performance.