Effects of feeding sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) vines as a supplement on feed intake, growth performance, digestibility and carcass characteristics of Sidama goats fed a basal diet of natural grass hay

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of substituting sweet potato [Ipomoea batatas (L) Lam] vines for concentrate on growth performance, digestibility, and carcass characteristics. Thirty yearling bucks (15.3 ± 1.64 kg) were assigned into six treatments in a randomized complete block design: natural grass hay alone (T1) or supplemented with 100 % sweet potato vines (SPV) (T2), 65 % SPV + 35 % concentrate (T3), 35 % SPV + 65 % concentrate (T4), and 100 % concentrate (T5) on dry matter (DM) basis. Supplemented goats (T2, T3, T4, and T5) consumed higher (p < 0.001) total DM (553, 567, 505, and 515 g/day), respectively, when compared to the nonsupplemented (T1) goats (349 g/day). The crude protein (CP) intake (32.0, 48.6, 54.7, and 69.2 g/day) increased with increasing levels of the concentrate in the diet for T2, T3, T4, and T5, respectively. The DM digestibility in T2, T3, T4, and T5, respectively, was higher (P < 0.01) (0.69, 0.72, 0.72, and 0.74) than in T1 (0.56). Apparent digestibility of CP was observed to be higher (P < 0.001) in T3, T4, T5 (0.78, 0.83, and 0.88) when compared to the bucks in T2 (0.60). Higher (P < 0.001) daily weight gain (31.2, 46.4, 48.6, and 47.6 g/day) were recorded for T2, T3, T4, and T5, respectively, whereas the nonsupplemented goats lost weight (-19.5 g/day). Slaughter weight, empty body weight, hot carcass weight, dressing percentage, rib-eye muscle area, and total edible offals were higher (P < 0.05) in supplemented goats compared with nonsupplemented ones. Therefore, it could be concluded that sweet potato vine can replace the conventional concentrate and could be fed with poor quality hay to prevent body weight loss of animal in the absence of other feed supplements.

Substitution of dried mulberry (Morus indica L.) leaf meal for concentrate mix on feed intake, digestibility, body weight gain and carcass characteristics of Abergelle sheep

“…Comparable to the NDF content of WB in the present study, values of 484 g/kg DM by Gebeyew et al (2015) and 480.1 g/kg DM by Gebru et al (2015) were documented. The ADF content of WB in this study was greater than the value of 105 g/kg DM reported in earlier study (Megersa et al, 2013). It has been noted that fiber content of WB may vary depending upon the quality of wheat being milled and the exact processing method used (Tolera, 2008).…”

Agronomic characterization of sweet potato accessions

“…Sweet potato branches and leaves is being a practive adopted by small growers to complement animal feed, after roots consumption. Sweet potato branches and leaves used animal feed supply showed promising results for dairy cows (Khalid et al, 2013), goats (Megersa et al, 2013) and pigs (Peters, 2004). Sweet potato branches good performance can be linked to its high protein content, which is between 26-33%, and with considerable amounts of vitamins A, B2,…”

Assessment of nutritional water productivity and improvement strategies for traditional vegetables in South Africa

“…Previous studies (Claessens et al, 2008;Larbi et al, 2007;Megersa et al, 2012;Mussoline and Wilkie, 2017) evaluated the potential of using sweet potato as a dual-purpose crop, i.e. harvesting the aboveground biomass as fodder for livestock feed and harvesting the storage root for human consumption.…”