Replacement value of soybean haulms meal in the diets of West African dwarf goats

The replacement value of soybean haulms for corn offal in low cost rations, was studied in 12 West African Dwarf (WAD) goats randomly allocated to 4 treatment diets with 3 replicates in a completely randomized design. The concentrate diets were fed to the goats ad libitum during 12 weeks with daily adjustment of at least 10%. The results showed that though the diets were low protein-high fibre, they met the minimum requirements for ruminants. The dry matter intake (DMI) was highest in diet 3 (p<0.05) and the same trend followed the intake of neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF) and lignin. The highest daily weight gain of 57.80 g/d (p<0.05) was recorded by goats fed diets 3, followed by diets 1, 2 and 4 with values of 34.70, 23.10 and 16.20 g/d, respectively. The feed conversion ratio of 23.9 recorded for diet 4 was the highest. The goats fed diet 4 recorded the highest (p<0.05) values for the red blood cell (RBC), white blood cell (WBC), packed cell volume (PCV) and haemoglobin (Hb). The results showed that soybean haulms could replace corn offal at 30% level in low cost concentrate rations for goats.