Growth performance of Savannah-Boar goat crosses fed diets with a silage mixture of varying levels of lucerne and oranges
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Date
2020
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University of Fort Hare
Abstract
The broad objective of this study was to assess the nutritional properties and growth performance of Savannah-Boar goat crosses fed silage from a mixture of varying levels of lucerne and oranges. Orange rejects were collected from Fort Beaufort farms (South Africa), sliced into four pieces, in cross-bisectional manner, dried for 1 week and mixed with chopped Lucerne wilted for 12 hours. Lucerne was harvested at Fort Cox College farm (South Africa). The sliced orange rejects were incorporated at varying levels of 0, 12.5, 25 and 37.5% to lucerne. The lucerne and sliced orange rejects were mixed with Sill-All 4x4 silage additive at a rate of 2 litres (L) per ton to improve the fermentation process. Mixture of sliced orange rejects and chopped lucerne were ensiled in 12 plastic drums (200L) with 3 drums per treatment and they were stored at room temperature for period of 90 days. Sampling was done on day 90 for determination of nutritive value and fermentation characteristics of silage. There was significant differences on DM, ADF, NDF, CP and ADL (P<0.05). There was significant differences on pH, LAC and NH3-N concentration (P<0, 05).The significant difference (P<0.05) was shown at Ca, P, Mg, Na, Zn, K, Cu, Mn and Fe. It was concluded that silage made on various inclusion levels of sliced orange rejects (SOR) to lucerne hay produced good silage quality, as indicated by chemical composition and improved fermentation. The formulated diets containing orange-lucerne silage mix was fed to 24 female Savannah-Boar goat crosses (21±1.5kg live weight), 7-8 month old. The experimental trial lasted for 56 days, where 10 days was the adaptation period to the diet. The intake, average daily gain (ADG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of Savannah-Boar goat crosses were determined. The ADFI and ADG differed significantly among the treatments. Furthermore, significant differences were also observed in FCR between the treatments. The ADFI increased linearly (P<0.001) for the control diet (T1= diet with 0% SOR’s) as the weeks progresses. However, there was quadratic increase (P<0.001) in ADFI with increasing weeks of feeding for goats subjected to diets containing silage with 12.5%, 25%, and 37.5% SOR’s. ADG quadratically increased (P<0.001) and reached its peak at week 7 for T1 and T2, while for T3 the peak was reached at week 6. T4 increased linearly from week 1-7. There was a linear decrease in FCR to its lowest values at week 6 for goats that were fed diets containing silage with 12.5%, 25%, and 37.5% SOR’s. Correlation between ADFI, ADG, and dietary treatments was positive. The FCR was negatively correlated to the ADFI and ADG. In conclusion, a diet with silage containing 0% and 12.5% SOR,s can be recommended to be fed for maintenance with slight weight gain in goats during the dry season.
Description
Masters dissertation
Keywords
Goats -- Feeds and feeding, Silage, Orange products
Citation
Ndongeni, S. (2020) Growth performance of Savannah-Boar goat crosses fed diets with a silage mixture of varying levels of lucerne and oranges. MSc Agriculture (Animal Science) dissertation. Alice, South Africa: University of Fort Hare.