EFFECTS OF SUPPLEMENTING QAXXEE (Hermosa sidoides) AND DHEEKAA (Grewia tembensis) FOLIAGE ON MILK YIELD, MILK QUALITY, AND ECONOMIC BENEFIT OF SOMALI GOATS FED CROP-RESIDUE BASED DIET

Abstract

The study was carried out to evaluate the effects of feeding foliage of Harmosa sidoides and Grewia tembensis on milk yield, milk quality, and economic benefit of Somali goats fed crop residue-based diet. A completely randomized block design was used with 3 treatment diets excluding control treatment. The treatments were; T1(600g Hermosa sidoides, 200g concentrate mixture, maize stover), T2(600g Grewia tembensis,200g concentrate mixture, maize stover ), and T3(300g Hermosa sidoides+300g Grewia tembensis, maize stover) where concentrate and maizestover used as basal feed. Hermosa sidoides had higher (28.7%) CP and 40% NDF, 18%ADF while, Grewia tembensis has 27.1%CP, 47% NDF 21.91% ADF. The basal diet, Maize stover, has 6% Cp, 78% NDF, 40.08%, ADF10.1 %AD. The daily dry matter intake of goats fed on T1, T2 and T3 were T1 (0.95kg), T2 (0.92kg), T3 (0.91kg). The body weight gains of goats were 1.334kg, 1.24kg, and 1.27kg respectively for goats fed on T1, T2, and T3. Feed convertion ratio (FCR) was lower for T1diet was (1.04) while feed conversion ratio for T2 and T3 were equally 0.73.The daily milk yield for 90 days of feeding trials, was significantly higher (p<0.05) for those goats fed treatment diet T1 (0.91kg) than goats under T2 (0.82kg) and T3(0.84kg. The result of the mean average milk chemical composition was non-significant for all parameters. For all treatment diets, fat and protein were higher for T2 3.64±0.33 and 3.55±0.14 respectively, the overall value of Lactose, SNF, Ash, and density in all treatment diets were in the range of expected value of goat milk composition; 4.47%, 8.83%, 0.8% and 1.03kg/m3 respectively. The change in net income was higher in T1 than in treatment T3. The marginal rate of return in T1 and T3, which follow the same trend of changing in net return, was 78% and 12.33% respectively. Generally, the result of this study showed that supplementation of lactating Somali goats with Hermosa sidoides(Qaxxee) foliage(T1 Diet) in their diet significantly increases milk production and cost return, therefore it can be used as a potential diet for goat feeds which usually available in the arid and semi-arid rangeland of the study area.