Applied Tropical Agriculture THE EFFECTS OF FEEDING VARYING LEVELS OF CASSAVA FOLIAGE ON THE PERFORMANCE OF WEST AFRICAN DWARF GOAT

An experiment was conducted to estimate the effect of replacing Gliricidia sepium leaves (GSL) with cassava foliage (CFL) at 0, 30 and 60 % in the diets of West African Dwarf (WAD) goats. Allocation of animals was into three treatments of four animals each. This study reports the effect of these dietary treatments on the feed intake, digestibility, body weight changes and the blood parameters of the experimental goats. DM intakes of the animals ranged between 2.5 to 2.9 percent of the body weight. Goats fed 60 % CFL had the highest (P<0.05) dry matter intake (DMI) of 386.86g with average daily weight gain of 46.55g/day, while goats fed 60 % GSL had 311.15g and 34.74g/day, respectively. The replacement of GSL with CFL increased the weights of goats. DM and CP digestibility of the diets in the experimental goats decreased (P<0.05) as GSL was being replaced with CFL, while the fibre fractions digestibility were not influenced (P>0.05) by the dietary treatments. Also, the replacement of GSL with CFL did not affect (P>0.05) the blood parameters monitored. It was however concluded that cassava foliage can successfully replace Gliricidia sepium leaves in the diets of WAD goats