Effect of feeding poultry litter on the growth performance and carcass characteristics of savanna brown goat

Abstract

A twelve week trial was conducted to investigate the growth performance, digestibility and carcass characteristics of twelve male kids of Savanna Brown goats aged between 5 and 7 months with initial average weight of 8097.63 g fed graded levels of dried poultry litter. The study involved four
feed treatments (T1 = 0.00 %, T2 = 12.00 %, T3 = 24.00 % and T4 = 36.00 %), which were formulated to be isonitrogenous (14.50%) and replicated three times. The goats were randomly assigned to each treatment using a randomized complete block design (RCBD). Results showed no significant (p>0.05) differences in feed intake, growth rate, feed conversion efficiency, dry matter, ash, crude fiber, ether extract digestibility and carcass characteristics among the treatment means.
However, the result of cost-benefit analysis showed significant (p<0.05) differences in the cost of feed/day/goat (N). T1 (9.26) was significantly (p<0.05) higher than the values for T2 (7.07), T3 (3.68) and T4 (3.26). Results of weight gain/feed cost showed that it was cheaper to produce meat using T4 (6.41g/N) than T3 (3.68g/N), T2 (4.88g/N) and T1 (3.68/N) even though, the differences were not significant (p>0.05). It was concluded that for profitable goat production, dried poultry litter could be incorporated up to 36% in the ration of goats without any deleterious effect.

Keyword: Groundnut cake, poultry litter, Savanna Brown goat