ASSESSMENT OF ENSILED MILLET STOVER WITH OR WITHOUT LEGUMES STOVER FOR QUALITY AND ACCEPTABILITY BY WEST AFRICAN DWARF GOAT

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the ensiled millet stover with or without legumes stover for quality and acceptability by West African dwarf goats. The materials were ensiled for 90 days in bag silo. There were five silage treatments: A (100% Millet stover only), B (80% Millet stover + 20% Groundnut stover), C (80% Millet stover + 20% Bambaranut stover), D (80% Millet stover + 20% Soybean stover), E (80% Millet stover + 20% Cajan cajanus stover) with four replicates each. Acceptability studies was done using eight (8) female West African dwarf goats of average weight of 8-12kg. Results of physical characteristics of ensiled millet stover with or without legumes produced good quality silages with greenish yellow colour, firm texture and good aroma (fruity and pleasant). The result of coefficient of preference (CoP) indicates that 100% ensiled millet stover was highly preferred, followed by ensiled millet stover with bambaranut stover by WAD goats with CoP values of 1.08 and 1.02, respectively. However daily mean consumption (g/day) suggested that with time the goats would get use to other silage types. The CP contents of the silage types ranged significantly (P<0.05) from A silage (11.50%) to D silage (14.08%). The silage pH and temperature (0C) values ranged from 3.70 to 3.83 and 25.75 to 26.75oC. Moisture content and dry matter (DM) values ranged from A silage (63.90%) to E silage (67.28%) and from E silage (32.71%) to A silage (36.60%) respectively. However, the pH, temperature, moisture and DM values were similar across the treatments. The result obtained from this study indicates that all the silage types preserved well and legumes stover improved CP content of ensiled millet stover significantly.Therefore, the silage could be used for feeding ruminants, since CP contents were above 7% threshold recommended for ruminants.