Effect of supplementing rhodes grass hay with dried calliandra leaves and common vetch hay on the performance of growing dairy goat crosses in kenya

A study was conducted to determine the effect of supplementing basal Rhodes grass hay with dried Calliandra leaves and common Vetch hay on growing dairy goats on voluntary feed intake and growth rate under a confined feeding system. A total of twelve weaned male Toggenburg crosses aged between 3 and 4 months were randomly allocated to 3 dietary treatments in a randomized complete block design. T1: Rhodes grass hay as the control, T2: 30% Calliandra + Basal diet, T3: 30% Vetch + Basal diet. The initial 10 days were allowed for adaptation to the diets and data collected for 8 weeks. The result of this study showed that live weight gain and average daily gain for supplemented goats was significantly different (p˂0.05) for the supplemented goats compared to those fed on the control diet which gained 3.4 Kg and 2.9 Kg and average daily gain of 60.9 and 51.1 g/day for goats supplemented with Calliandra and Vetch respectively. The un-supplemented goats lost 1.09 Kg and had a negative daily gain. This study suggests that the Toggenburg crosses performed better when dried Calliandra leaves and common vetch hay were used as protein supplements on basal Rhodes grass hay.