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Growth Performance of Indigenouns Goat Breeds through Grazing Supplemented With Graded Levels of Sweet Potato (Ipomoea Batatas) Silage in Loma Woreda, Southern Ethiopia

Background: A study was carried out in Loma district of Southern part of Ethiopia that aimed to determine the effects of supplementation of graded levels of sweet potato vine silage on growth performances of grazing indigenous goat breeds. Loma district, the potential area for sweet potato production, that they practiced feeding sweet potato for animal feed shortage especially during dry season in the study area. Two hundred Sixteen indigenous yearling male local goats (16.3±0.4kg) were randomly selected for on-farm feeding trial. The goats were blocked into four groups of fifty four animals based on their initial body weight. Dietary treatments were randomly assigned to each animal in the groups. Animals which were assigned randomly in each block were given to farmers. The treatment comprised of grazing alone as treatment 1, grazing+78 g dry matter sweet potato silage as treatment 2, grazing +156 g dry matter sweet potato silage as treatment 3, grazing + 234 g dry matter sweet potato silage as treatment 4. Results: The highest dry matter contents (89.7%) were observed in final trial periods compared to initial and mid-term of trial periods. The average daily gain for Treatment 4 was higher (P<0.05) than those goats in Treatment 1 and Treatment 2. The weight gain for Treatment 3 and Treatment 4 were similar (P>0.05). About 96.7% of the respondents produce sweet potato. Conclusions: In the current feeding trial study results indicated that, the increased supplementation of sweet potato vine silage revealed increased performance of grazing local goats. Intake of dry matter increased from 78% to 234% with increasing levels of sweet potato vine silage supplementation. There was higher average daily gain for the supplemented group (60, 80 and 97g/head/day in Treatment 2, Treatment 3 and Treatment 4, respectively) than non-supplemented ones (34.2g/head/day). Therefore, from these findings it is concluded that supplementation of sweet potato silage favors better growth rate however we need to work on improving the productivity of sweet potato and improve benefits of feeding to goats.