The effect of feeding feed forage mixes as dry season feed Supplements on growth performance of goats in the semi Arid areas of Zimbabwe

The major feed resources used in the Small holder sector in Zimbabwe are the veld and crop residues. The veld, however, is characterized by high seasonal variation in yield and quality and animals often lose condition during the dry season. The challenge is to develop alternative feed resources that will sustain production throughout the year. This project presents the growth performance and carcass characteristics of the Matebele goats fed mixed forage diets based Bana grass, Mucuna pruriens and dual purpose sorghum and a commercial feed as a standard. This study was under taken to assess the performance of goats fed mixed forage diets fed as dry season feed supplements. The forage diets were sole portions of Mucuna pruriens, sole Bana grass and sole Sorghum as well as mixtures of Mucuna pruriens with grass forages and following levels were used Bana grass 33 % / Mucuna 67 % Sorghum/33 % / Mucuna 67 % and either way. A total of 54 Matebele kapaters were blocked for weight into 3 weight categories small, medium and large goats and 9 treatements were allocated to each weight category in a randomized block design. The treatments were no supplementation, mixes of Mucuna pruriens and Bana grass at 33% and 67%, mixes of Mucuna and a dual purpose sorghum stover at 33% and 67% either way and commercial supplementary feed. The crude protein content of the diets ranged from 25.4g/kg DM for 100% Sorghum diet to 155g/kg DM for the commercial diet. The average supplementary feed intake ranging from 47g/day DM for the 100% Sorghum diet being the least and 360g/day DM being higher were recorded. The average daily gains goats fed on commercial feed and Mucuna based diets were iii significantly higher (P<0.005) that the rest. No significant variations were observed on dressing out percentages and chilling out losses (P>0.005) across all treatments. Feeding a commercial diet as supplementary feed during the dry season, proved to be more expensive since it does not give any significant benefits when compare to home grown forage diets. There sole portions of Mucuna pruriens and its mixes with Bana grass and Sorghum can be used satisfactorily as supplementary feed for small ruminants in the dry season as observed herein (P