GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF ARSI-BALE KIDS SUPPLEMENTED WITH DIFFERENT LEVELS OF CONCENTRATE

Abstract

A feeding trail was conducted at Adami Tulu Research Center on Arsi-Bale weaned kids to see the effect of different levels of concentrate supplementation and determine optimum level of supplementation. Grazing kids were supplemented with four different levels (0, 150, 300, and 450 grams) of concentrate. Kids supplemented with high level of supplement (450g/d) have grown at a fastest (P<0.05) rate and they reached 18 kg of body weight at 7th week of the feeding period, while kids at lower level (150 g/d) of supplement did not reach this weight even until 12th week of the feeding period. Average daily weight gain increased from 7.94 g/d to 79.08 g/d as level of supplement increases from 0 to 450 g. The average gain due to supplement in treatment 2, 3 and 4 was 30.75 g/d, 41.66 g/d and 71.14 g/d, respectively. Supplementing kids with 150 g of concentrate has significantly (P<0.05) improved ADG from 7.94 g to 38.69 g/d. The ADG of kids obtained by increasing level of supplement from 150 g to 300 g was not statistically significant (P>0.05). Increasing level of supplement from 300 g to 450 g had significantly (P<0.05) improved ADG of kids from 49.6 g/d to 79.10 g/d. Though, growth performance of all supplemented kids were significantly higher than the control groups, the highest ADG (79.1 g/d), TWG (6.6 kg) and highest net return (27.30 ETB/h) was observed in level four. From the result of this study one can conclude that of all levels of supplementation, level four (450g/h/d) was relatively the best level in terms of both biological and economic returns.

African Journal of Livestock Extension Vol.3 2004: 82-86