Authors: A.O. Oni, O.M. Arigbede, O.O. Oni, C.F.I. Onwuka, U.Y. Anele, B.O. Oduguwa, K.O. Yusuf
Livestock Science
© 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Abstract
The feeding value of dried cassava leaves as supplement in the diet was investigated in an
experiment with West African Dwarf goats at different inclusion levels of 0, 20, 40 and 60% of
DM respectively, using guinea grass as a basal feed.
The study lasted for 112 days during which feed intake, performance characteristics, digestibility
and nitrogen utilization were monitored in 40male goats using a completely randomized design.
Dry matter (DM) intake fromguinea grass was significantly (P<0.05; 0.01) increased from 0% to
60% inclusion of dried cassava leaves in the diet. The total DM intakes were 482, 526, 537 and
528 g/d for the 0, 20, 40 and 60% of dried cassava leaves in the diet, respectively. The body weight
gain of the animals were significantly (P<0.05) higher than in the control group. The highest gain
was recorded in goats with 60% of dried cassava leaves in the diet (52.9 g/d) and lowest for the
control (33.8 g/d). The inclusion of dried cassava leaves significantly (P<0.05) decreased the
apparent digestibility ofDM, neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF),while it
increased the apparent digestibility of crude protein (CP) and ether extract (EE), resulting in
higher nitrogen balance (3.75 g/d) at 60% of the supplement. In conclusion, supplementing a basal
diet of guinea grass (Panicum maximum) with dried cassava leaves improved DM intake, weight
gain, apparent digestibility and N-retention in WAD goats. The inclusion level of dried cassava in
the diet can be up to 60% level in a compounded ration for ruminant animals on DM basis.