GROWTH AND NUTRIENT UTILIZATION IN STALL-FED KIDS ON CUMBU NAPIER HYBRID CO-4 SILAGE AND DIFFERENT LEVELS OF CONCENTRATE FEED

摘要

An experiment was conducted for 120 days on local kids (3-4 months-old weighing 11-12 kg) by feeding Cumbu Napier hybrid (CO-4) grass silage ad libitum and supplementing concentrate mixture @ 0.5% body weight (R-l), CO-4 fodder silage ad libitum + concentrate mixture @ 1.0% body weight (R-ll) and CO-4 fodder silage ad libitum + concentrate mixture @ 1.5% body weight (R-l 11) to study the growth and nutrient utilization. Average daily gain (ADG) was significantly (P<0.01) higher in kids fed R-lll followed by R-ll and R-l rations (58.14% higher gain in R-lll than R-I and 31.38% higher in R-ll than R-l). Compared to R-l ration, digestibility of crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE) and crude fibre (CF) increased (P<0.01) by 10.6, 8.27 and 5.70%, respectively in R-lll ration and 7.60, 10.76 and 5.00%, respectively in R-ll ration. Nitrogen free extract (NFE) digestibility was lower (P<0.01) by 7.48 and 9.93% in R-l than R-lll and R-ll ration, respectively. The study revealed that CO-4 fodder silage canbe supplemented with concentrate at 1.5% of body weight for better growth and nutrient utilisation in native stall-fed kids.