Nutrient intake and growth performance of kids fed sorghum stover based pelleted complete feed

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of sorghum stover based pelleted complete feed on the performance of male and female goat kids. Animal were fed pelleted complete feed (60:40, roughage to concentrate ratio) for 120 days, which contained 7% DCP and 65% TDN. The daily DMI for male and female kids in terms of g/day and % of BW was 603.2 and 672.5g, 4.85 and 4.25 ± 0.10 kg, respectively. The feed conversion efficiency was 9.83 and 11.21, respectively in male and female animals. The digestibility coefficients for different nutrients were not different between the two groups. The goats in both the groups were in positive nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus balance. The DCP and TDN values ranged from 7.04 to 7.27 and 48.25 to 51.73 per cent, respectively. The rumen liquor characteristics assessed fortnightly had similar variations except for total volatile fatty acid concentration, which was significantly (P< 0.01) higher in males (8.36 mEq/100 ml SRL) than in females (7.63 mEq/100 ml SRL). The blood biochemical profile revealed significant (P< 0.01) variations except for serum calcium. The cost per kg live weight gain was Rs. 46.16 in male and 47.56 in female kids. It was concluded that male goats performed better on sorghum stover based pelleted complete feed with respect to weight gain, which can provide goat farmers higher economical returns under stallfed conditions.