Performance of growing goats fed paddy straw supplemented with graded levels of Thespesia Populnea

Abstract

A study was carried out to examine the effect of supplementing paddy straw with incremental levels of Thespesia Populnea (Portia) forage on dry matter (DM) intake, digestibility and live weight changes. Twelve crossbred bucks were used in a randomized block design for duration of 4 weeks. The treatments comprised of a Portia tree leaves and paddy straw supplemented with in 15:85, 30:70 and 45:55 for the treatment groups T1, T2 and T3, respectively. Concentrate @ 200 g/buck were offered to meet the nutritional requirement of the experimental animals on a dry matter basis. All animals were allowed ad libitum access to water and mineral lick. Supplementing paddy straw with Portia resulted in increased total DM intake from 636.83(T3), to 681.13 (T1), and 753.98 (T2) g/day. Intake of straw with Portia tree leaves significantly (p>0.05) influence the intake of straw in between the treatments T1, T2 and T3. DM digestibility increased with supplementation with T2 recording the highest value of 57.90% which was not far higher than the T1 and T3 and shows the non-significant variation. Supplementation of straw with Portia tree leaves in T2significantly increased daily weight gains (p