Legume forages from pigeon pea, leucaena and sesbania as supplements to natural pastures for goat production in western Tanzania

Authors: Karachi, M.¹; Zengo, M.²

Source: Agroforestry Systems, Volume 39, Number 1, January 1998 , pp. 13-21(9)

Publisher: Springer

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $47.00 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

In two dry and two wet seasons forage of pigeon pea, leucaena and sesbania were fed to growing goats as supplements to natural grazing over a two year period. The supplemented goats gained live-weights faster (P < 0.05) than the control animals. Intakes of pigeon pea (63.1 to 91.4 g/head/day) and leucaena (52.6 to 93.8 g/head/day) were consistently higher (P < 0.05) than that of sesbania (49.7 to 83.4 g/head/day) and this was reflected in liveweight gains in both wet and dry season. Liveweight gains ranged from 25.5 to 43.2, 16.7 to 37.5, 14.4 to 28.3 and 6.7 to 21.6 g/head/day for goats supplemented with pigeon pea, leucaena, sesbania and the control animals respectively. Preliminary cost-benefit analysis of the results indicate that such interventions are likely to be economically attractive and the responses provide a basis for improvement of goat production in the Tabora agro-pastoral systems.

Keywords: growing goats; legumes; range grazing; supplementation

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1005859617603

Affiliations: 1: SADC/ICRAF Agroforestry Research Project, Tumbi, Tabora, Tanzania, 2: Agricultural Research and Training Institute, Tumbi, Tabora, Tanzania,

Publication date: 1998-01-01