Effects of Sweet Grass (Pennisetum purpureum cv. Mahasarakham) on Growth Performance in Anglo Nubian Crossbred Meat goat

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the possibility of sweet grass as the main roughage on growth performance in male crossbred meat goat (Thai native x Anglo Nubian). Eight male meat goat (4 months old) with an initial body weight of 11.47±0.64 kg. The experimental design was an independent T-test with 4 goats in each group. Two trial groups were goat fed group 1: Napier Pakchong 1 grass with 1.5% body weight of concentrate feed and group 2: sweet grass with 1.5% body weight of concentrate feed by fed roughage an ad libitum for 14 days that goat was acclimated before the experiment for 90 days. The results showed that dry matter intake, growth rate, final weight, and feed conversion ratio were not significantly different. Blood glucose and blood urea nitrogen concentrate after the meal at 4th hour were not significantly different. Feed cost and total cost of goat fed with sweet grass was higher than another group but presented the higher weight at the final weight that affected on the highest net profit. Thus, the used of sweet grass as main roughage can be feed for improve growth performance in Anglo Nubian Crossbred Meat goat.