Author:
Caroline Tosin Alade, Teniola Samuel Oso, Gladys Abiemwense Ibhaze, Desmond Adebowale Okunade
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
ABSTRACT
As global demand for milk increases, nutritional strategies is crucial for improving dairy animal productivity. Thus, a 12-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of tigernut seed meal (TSM) on proximate composition, nutrient intake and milk efficiency in West African Dwarf (WAD) goats. Twenty lactating does were randomly assigned to five diets with varying TSM levels: 0% (D1), 5% (D2), 10% (D3), 15% (D4), and 20% (D5) while wilted Panicum maximum was fed as basal diet. Proximate composition of the diets, nutrient intake, milk production efficiency, correlation and regression model were analyzed. Panicum maximum contained 26.83% dry matter, 8.30% crude protein, and 16.09% crude fiber. Significant (P<0.05) differences were observed except for dry matter and nitrogen-free extract. Increased TSM inclusion reduced crude protein (12.01% to 10.55%) and ash content (12.69% to 6.54%) in the diets. Dry matter and crude protein intake declined significantly (P<0.05) with TSM, highest values (769.17 g/day and 108.90 g/day) in does fed diet D1. However, highest milk yield (400.89 g/day), efficiency (0.63) and least feed conversion (1.60) was obtained from does fed diet D5. Early lactation showed stronger positive correlations between milk yield and nutrient intake (r = 0.946 for dry matter, r = 0.998 for crude protein), weakening as lactation progressed. Linear and quadratic regression models were both significant (P<0.05) in late lactation (R² = 0.833, r = 0.913; R² = 0.834, r = 0.913). In conclusion, incorporating up to 15% TSM in lactating goat diets enhances milk yield and efficiency.
| Pages | 93-101 |
| Year | 2025 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Volume | 5 |
