Performance of male goats fed on fodder diets in a feedlot system in Narok County, Kenya
2025
Wambulwa, Levi. M. | Korir, Bernard. K. | Kuria, Simon. G. | Mulei, Benson
The study was designed to determine the performance of Galla goats fed on different diets in a feedlot system. This was undertaken at Keiyian ranch, in Narok County, Kenya. The 15 male goats aged between 13-15 months, with an average weight of (16.58kg ± 0.56kg) were sourced from the Keiyian ranch. The diet treatments were derived from a combination of two grasses; Panicum (Megathysus maximus Var. Mombasa) and Brachiaria spp var Cayman) with two legumes (i.e. Lucerne (Medicago sativa) and Desmodium (Desmodium intortum)). The five diets representing the treatments included; Diet 1; M maximus+Lucerne, Diet 2; M maximus +Desmodium , Diet 3;Brachiaria +Lucerne, Diet 4; Brachiaria + Desmodium , Diet 5; Brachiaria. The trial involved 15 goats in a completely randomized block design. Nutritive analysis of the diets was performed using wet chemistry for dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), acid-detergent fibre (ADF) and neutraldetergent fibre (NDF), crude fiber (CF), Nitrogen free extract (NFE) and acid detergent lignin (ADL). All the trial animals were weighed weekly, data recorded and analysed. The analysis of DMI did not show any significant differences but weight gain showed significant differences (P< 0.05) between diets, where Brachiaria + Desmodium and Megathysus + Desmodium diets showed thehighest average daily weight gain (ADWG) and final weight of 317.5g, 44.1kg and 297.6g/day, 43.8kg respectively. This indicated that ADWG of the goats were enhanced by inclusion of legumes in the diet. The study recommends inclusion of legumes in feed rations of goats in a feedlot system.
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