| dc.description.abstract | The study was conducted in the south western low lands of
Eritrea at Shambuko Agricultural Research Station in Gash Setit
Province, 260 Km West of the capital, Asmara, at an altitude of
1000 m.
A total of fifteen Barka yearling male goats, the most common
breed of goats in this ecological zone were fed separately in
individual pens with diets consisting of 100% grass hay based diet
as a control or treatment I, grass hay combined wi th different
proportions of Acacia t o r t i Ii s pods at 25%, 50% and 75%, hereby
refered to as treatment II, III and IV, respectively. However,
treatment V as an upper control diet was constituted of 100%
A. tortilis pods based diet.
On the basis of crude protein (CP) content alone, the grass
hay used in this study can be rated as low quality, even though
some of the species happened to contain above 7% crude protein
content. Th eg r ass hay was a 1soh i g h inn e u t r a 1 detergent fiber
(NDF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL), and relatively low in P, Mg
and Na.
The supplementary diet used in this study reported here had CP
level above the critical minimum for small ruminants and low levels
of lignin and NbF.
Body weight gain was significantly affected by the supplements
(P<0.05). However, treatments II and III; and IV and V gave about
the same live weight gains despite their distinct difference in
ration composition.
Diet I with 100% grass hay, gave significantly (P<0.05) lower
OM digestibility than all the other diets. Voluntary DM intake of
the goats was found to be significantly (P<0.05) different. While
animals on diet V (100% pod) were found to consume at the same rate
as the control diet (100% grass hay).
The study indicated that there was no significant linear
relationship (P>0.05) between the tree canopy cover and pod
production (R2=0.153), neither was there a significant relationship
between pod production and the circumference of the trunk (P>0.05,
R-2_0.033 ) .
Based on the results from these studies it was recommended
that A. tortilis pods could be used as the main sources of protein
for improved animal production in the semi-arid areas of the world,
although further studies on the optimum levels of Acacia pods in
the ration for maintenance, growth and production are suggested | en |
