Nutrient Intake and Nitrogen Balance of West African Dwarf (WAD) Goats fed Cassava Peel Meal Supplemented with Varying Levels of African Yambean Concentrate

A total of eight (8) intact West African Dwarf (WAD) bucks with a mean live weight range of 18.85 – 19.94 kg and aged between 18 and 24 months was used in a 4 × 4 Latin square experiment to determine the intake and nitrogen balance of the cassava peel meal based – diets supplemented with African Yambean Meal (AYBM) in diets T₁, T₂, T₃ and T₄ with levels of 0, 10, 20 and 30% respectively. The respective dietary treatments were assigned to individual animals in metabolism cages. Weekly body weight values were recorded, feed and dry matter intake measured and nitrogen balance study conducted. Results showed that the Dry matter intake (DMI) (g/d) values were 608.52, 572.32, 548.60 and 552.93 for diets T₁, T₂, T₃ and T₄ respectively. The values were statistically similar (P>0.05).The values generally indicated that the animals on various dietary treatments showed positive DMI status.  The metabolic faecal nitrogen (MFN) (g/100gDM), endogenous urinary nitrogen (EUN) (g/day/kg W^0.75) and digestible crude protein (DCP) (g/kg W^0.75) values were 0.17, 0.19, 0.22, 0.25; 0.24, 0.03, 0.02, 0.03 and 0.44, 0.56, 0.81, 1.81 respectively for diets T₁, T₂, T₃ and T₄. All the diets promoted a positive nitrogen balance between the treatment groups.The relationship between urinary nitrogen (g/day/Wkg^0.75) and absorbed nitrogen (g/day/Wkg^0.75) was significantly (P<0.05) correlated between the control diet T₁ and diet T₃ with values of 0.91 and 0.82 respectively. The correlation coefficient, however showed some remarkable improvement from 0.49 to 0.64 for diets T₂ and T₄ respectively. While both parameters were positively correlated within the AYBM diets, the coefficient of correlation was only significant (P<0.05) for diet T₃ (30% AYBM). Energy digestibility coefficients were 43.04, 50.37, 53.35 and 53.30% respectively for WAD bucks fed diets T₁, T₂, T₃ and T₄. The values differed (P<0.05) significantly among the various dietary treatments. The study concludes that AYBM meal in cassava peel based diets improved nutrient digestibility, nitrogen intake and ensured a positive nitrogen balance, thereby boosting the maintenance requirements of WAD bucks. Therefore, farmers can supplement cassava peel meal based diets with African Yambean meal up to 30% without fear of compromising digestibility of nutrients.