NUTRITIONAL POTENTIAL OF ACACIA (Acacia nilotica (L.) DEL.) PODS FOR GROWING RED SOKOTO GOATS

NUTRITIONAL POTENTIAL OF ACACIA (Acacia nilotica (L.) DEL.) PODS FOR GROWING RED SOKOTO GOATS

Abstract:

Two separate studies to evaluate alternative methods of processing Acacia nilotica pods and level of replacement of cotton seed cake with Acacia pods; and its effect on nutrient composition, feed intake, digestibility of nutrients, heamatological parameters and general performance of Red Sokoto goats were conducted. The aims were to explore cheaper, safer and easier method of processing Acacia pods and to explore the advantages of Acacia nilotica pods as a cheaper source of protein to livestock; in place of the highly competitive and costly conventional sources of protein to livestock. Differently processed A. nilotica pods contained 96.13%, 96.47%, 97.52%, 97.21% and 98.12% dry matter, 12.69%, 12.13%, 15.06%, 13.25%, and 10.13% crude protein; 2.81%, 2.33%, 5.51%, 9.46%, and 4.74% hemicelluloses, for sun-dried (T1), crushed (T2), soaked and milled (T3), sun-dried and milled (T4), and sun-dried milled with charcoal (T5) respectively. Sun-dried Acacia pods contained 0.05% Sodium, 4.00% (mg/kg) Calcium, 0.03% Iron, 0.01% Zinc, 0.14% Magnesium and 1.00% Potassium. Tannin content in differently processed Acacia pods were 1.20, 1.30, 0.90, 0.10 and 0.80 mg/100kg in treatments T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 respectively. Twenty five Red Sokoto goats (bucks) of average age of 10 months and averagedly weighing 10.2 ± 0.4 kg were used in a Completely Randomized Block Design (CRBD) experiment, to evaluate the effect of processing A. nilotica pods and dried sweet potato forage (basal diet) on feed intake, nutrient digestibility and performance of Red Sokoto goats. Dietary treatments significantly (P<0.05) affected daily feed intake (DFI), feed conversion ratio (FCR), weight gain (WG), and final body weight (FBW). Digestibilities of CP, EE, NDF, and HC were significantly (P<0.05) affected across dietary treatments. Nitrogen intake (NI) and faecal nitrogen (FN) differed significantly (P<0.05) across dietary treatments. Packed cell volume (PCV), haemoglobin (Hb) and total plasma protein (TPP) were not significantly (P>0.05) affected by dietary treatments. However, plasma urea nitrogen (PUN) and creatinine (Cr) differed significantly (P<0.05) across dietary treatments. In experiment 2, diets containing sun-dried Acacia nilotica pods at different levels contained 94.41%, 94.21%, 93.62%, 93.69%, and 93.21% dry matter, 17.56%, 17.50%, 15.38%, 14.50%, and 14.38 % crude protein; 35.32%, 17.47%, 11.52%, 30.10% and 14.53% hemicelluloses at 0 to 100% inclusion levels respectively. Diets containing sun-dried Acacia pods to replace cotton seed cake and dried sweet potato forage (basal diet) were fed to 25 Red Sokoto goats (bucks) of average age of 10 months; and averagedly weighing 10.3 ± 0.1 kg in a Completely Randomized Block Design (CRBD) experiment, to evaluate the effect of replacing cotton seed cake (CSC) with sun-dried Acacia pods on feed intake, nutrient digestibility, haematological parameters and performance of Red Sokoto goats. Different levels of Acacia pods significantly (P<0.05) affected weight gain (WG), daily weight gain (DWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and cost per weight gain in Naira per kilogramme (C/WGN/KG). Digestibilities of DM, CP, EE, CF, NDF, and HC were significantly affected (P<0.05) across dietary treatments . Water intake (WI), nitrogen intake (NI), faecal nitrogen (FN) and urinary nitrogen (UN) differed significantly (P<0.05) across dietary treatments. Packed cell volume (PCV), haemoglobin (Hb), total plasma protein (TPP), plasma urea nitrogen (PUN) and creatinine (Cr) differed significantly (P<0.05) across dietary treatments. It was therefore concluded that sun-drying Acacia pods was preferred to other methods of processing used in this study because it gave better results in terms of FI, WG, FCR, and FBW. It was also found to be cheaper and easier to process. It was also concluded that 25% of sun-dried Acacia pods can be used to replace CSC in the diets of Red Sokoto goats without having any adverse effect on nutrient digestibility, haematological parameters and performance in them. Therefore, weight loss amongst Red Sokoto goats can be highly reduced by incorporating Acacia pods in their diets; especially during periods of feed scarcity, which is a common experience in the Northern part of Nigeria.

NUTRITIONAL POTENTIAL OF ACACIA (Acacia nilotica (L.) DEL.) PODS FOR GROWING RED SOKOTO GOATS