Effects of Substituting Calliandra Leaf Meal for Soybean Meal on Intake, Digestibility, Growth and Feed Efficiency in Goats

Ebong, C, Byenkya, S.G. and Ndikumana, J. 1999. Effects of substituting calliandra leaf meal for soybean meal on intake, digestibility, growth and feed efficiency in goats. J. Appl. Anim. Res., 16: 211-216. Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of substituting calliandra (Calliandra calothyrsus) leaf meal (CLM) for soybean meal (SBM) on intake, digestibility, growth and feed, efficiency in goats. Two male and 2 female Small East African (SEA) goats were fed elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) ad-libitum (1.3 x intake of previous day) and, four diets (300g d −1 ) consisting of 0, 50, 75 and 100 per cent of CLM mixed, with complementary proportion of SBM in a 4x4 latin square design in experiment 1. DMI on mixed, diet was higher than ihat on either SBM or CLM. Dry matter digestibility did not differ (P>0.05) among diets containing CLM. Experiment 2 examined, the effects of complementary levels of CLM and SBM on growth and feed efficiency in goats. Five levels (0, 25, 50, 75 and. 100 per cent) of CLM composted with complementary proportions of SBM were fed. to 30 male intact kids in a randomised design for 10 weeks. Control animals were fed elephant grass only. Highest growth rate with most efficient feed, utilization was observed in kids fed equal quantities of SBM and CLM. It was concluded that CLM is a potentially valuable substitute for SBM in compound feeds. Composting reduces astringency, improves palatability, digestibility and feed efficiency of the ration.