Growth and cost of producing Red Sokoto goats fed brewer’s dried grains and malted sorghum sprouts in Andropogon tectorum hay meal based diet

Abstract

The growth and cost of producing Red Sokoto (RS) goats were evaluated using brewer’s dried grains (BDG) and malted sorghum sprouts (MSP) in complete diets containing Andropogon tectorum hay meal (ATHM). The experiment was conducted using a completely randomised design (CRD). Four diets designated T1, T2, T3 and T4 were formulated to contain 40%, 30%, 20%, 10% of BDG and 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% of MSP respectively. Twenty four (24) bucks averaging 13.5±1.5 kg were randomly assigned to the four diets in a 56-day feeding trial. Data on proximate composition of BDG, MSP, ATHM and the diets, growth indices as well as the cost of production were generated. The dry matter, crude protein and gross energy of the diets were in the ranges of 91.38 – 92.23%, 15.60 – 17.09% and 1.66 – 1.70MJ/kg DM respectively. Feed utilization parameters on growth did not vary (P>0.05) across the treatments. However, these values improved numerically as the level of MSP in the diets increased from T1 – T4. Cost evaluation showed that the total feed cost (N) and daily feed cost (N) were statistically similar (P>0.05) for the 4 treatments while cost/kg weight gain (N) differed significantly (P<0.05). T4 had the least cost/kg weight gain of N 320.64 as against N 500.69 in T1. It was concluded that increasing the levels of MSP and reducing the levels of BDG in the diets gave better performance results and also reduced cost of production in RS goats.

Keywords: Performance; Complete diets; Red Sokoto goats