Abstract:
The experiment was conducted to evaluate the growth performance and nutrient digestibility of
grasscutters fed diets containing different inclusion level of locust beans meal (Parkia biglobosa)
as a replacement for soya bean meal. In a completely randomized design, four diets containing
different inclusion level of Parkia biglobosa were formulated to form the four dietary tretments.
The Treatment diets contain 0%, 25%, 50% and 75% inclusion of Parkia biglobosa as
Treatments 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Forty eight grasscutters were randomly allotted into four
dietary treatments for growth study which lasted for seventy days while twelve grasscutters were
allotted into individual digestibility cage for a 14 day digestibility trial. Data obtained include,
final body weight gain, average daily body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, dry matter
digestibility, crude protein digestibility. Data were analyzed using ANOVA at 5% level of
probability. Both final body weight and daily weight gain of the grasscutters differed (P<0.05)
between treatment groups. The final body weight gain ranged between 1.05 Kg (T1) and 2.54 Kg
(T4), Average daily weight gain was significantly highest (28.86 g) in T4 and lowest (7.85 g) in
T1 while the feed conversion ratio (FCR) was significantly higher (8.28) in T1 compared with
grasscutters on other dietary treatments. The same trend was observed for nutrient digestibility as
dry matter digestibility and crude protein digestibility were significantly highest (78.11) and
(78.44), respectively in T4 and lowest (70.25) and (66.42), respectively in T1
The results obtained in this study show that the inclusion of Parkia biglobosa at 75 % inclusion
level resulted in improved growth performance and enhanced nutrient digestibility in
domesticated grasscutters. |
