Study of domestic grass-legume mixture forage application on meat goat production

• Main Authors: Huang, Yu-Chen, 黃俞臻
• Other Authors: Wu, Hsi-Hsun
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/p37473

碩士 === 國立屏東科技大學 === 動物科學與畜產系所 === 106 === Most of meat ruminant livestock in tropics and sub-tropics utilizes locally produced by-products of pasture and crops to reduce feeding costs. However, these feed resources contain lower crude protein (CP) and higher fiber which is usually accompany with lower digestibility. The smallholders feeding domestic forages usually face problems of producing shortage in winter and unavailability of drying abounding hay during rainy season in spring and summer. Therefore, to overcome this problem and maintain adequate feed supply was to conserve hay into silage or haylage until winter to stabilize the supply throughout the year. Pangola grass is a popular tropical forage, but with lower content of CP than legume forage. Thus, we planted Pangola with legume forage; not only to improve the quality of forage, but also utilized the characteristics of symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legume to reduce the usage of nitrogen fertilizers. Coupled with proper harvesting period and storage, it showed the potential of stabilizing supply of domestic forage and decreasing the feeding cost of ruminants. As a result, the study was conducted to investigate the feasibility of applying domestic grass-legume mixture forage on meat goat production. Twenty-seven 4-month old Nubian cross Boer female goats were randomly divided into three groups. Goats in each group were assigned to 1 of 3 dietary treatments fed with different forage (control: Bermuda straw and alfalfa pellet, Pangola-alfalfa mixture haylage, and Pangola-alfalfa mixture hay). The experiment lasted for 10 weeks, first week for adaptation. Feed intake was recorded daily, body weight was meseared every two weeks throughout the experiment. The results showed that the quality of domestic grass-legume mixture was better than import Bermuda straw. According to in vitro gas production kinetics, the insoluble potential degradable fraction and cumulated gas production volume of the grass-legume mixture diet were greater than the diet of Bermuda straw and alfalfa pellet. Both of the treatments were significantly higher than control group on final body weight, total weight gain, average daily gain and total dry matter intake. In conclusion, domestic pangola-alfalfa mixture grass showed potential to replace import Bermuda straw and alfalfa pellet for feeding growing goats, not only increase growth performance but also decrease the feeding cost.