Browsing by Author "Hozza, William A."

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Effect of concentrate supplementation levels on growth and slaughter characteristics of SEA and SEA × Norwegian goats under on- farm conditions
(Springer, 2013-07-07) Hozza, William A.; Kifaro, George C.; Safari, John G.; Mushi, Daniel E.
A 2×3 factorial experiment was carried out to eval- uate the effect of goat genotypes and different concentrate levels on growth and slaughter characteristics of Small East African × Norwegian crossbred (SEA × N) and Small East African (SEA) goats. The three concentrate levels were T0 (no access to concentrate), T66 (66 % access to ad libitum concentrate allow- ance) and T100 (100 % access to ad libitum concentrate allow- ance). Twenty-four castrated goats of each genotype (18 months old with an average weight of 16.7±0.54 kg) were randomly allotted into T0, T66 and T100 treatments. Daily feed intake and fortnight body weight measurements were recorded for the whole 84-day experimental period, after which the animals were slaughtered. Feed intake of T100 animals was 536 g/day, which was 183 g/day higher than that of the T66 group. Supplemented goats (T66 and T100) had significantly (P<0.05) higher daily gain and body condition score, and better feed conversion efficiency and dressing percentage than T0 goats. The SEA goats had higher (P<0.05) hot carcass weight (8.2 vs. 7.9 kg) and showed better (P<0.05) dressing percentage than SEA × N animals. Among supplemented goats, the cost of a 1-kg gain under T66 was Tshs 213/= cheaper than T100 (US$1≈Tshs 1,500). It is concluded that goats should be grazed and supplemented with 353 g concentrate/day for satisfactory fat- tening performance and higher economic return on investment.