Dry season supplementation of goats tethered on range supplemented with cowpea or groundnut residues with or without fresh leucaena leaves
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The feed value of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) and groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) crop residues were evaluated on growing male landim goats tethered on native pasture during the 1992 and 1993 dry seasons in semi-arid Southern Mozambique. Treatments were native pasture alone as a control, native pasture+cowpea residue ad libitum and native pasture+groundnut residue ad libitum. During the second year, treatments with (0.5% liveweight (LW) on dry matter (DM) basis) or without fresh leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala) leaves were superimposed on the three treatments. During the 1993 dry season, both the cowpea and the groundnut groups gained more weight (p=0.0002) than the control group. The situation changed in 1993, a year with dry season rains. The unsupplemented group lost weight only in November and only during this period did some positive effect of supplementation occur. Over the season, there was no effect (p=0.48) of either residue or leucaena supplementation. The ammonia-nitrogen concentrations in the rumen fluid of the control group, measured in the 1993 dry season, were depressed by the inclusion of groundnut hay and increased by cowpea supplementation. Leucaena also depressed the ruminal NH3 in the crop residue diets but increased NH3 in the control group. The conclusion was that residue supplementation during the dry season was beneficial during a dry year. 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.
