Introduction

In India goat is considered as mini cow and poor man’s cow due to its wide utility by poor people or small scale farmers. The low growth rate of native goat is generally ascribed to their poor genetic potential, low plane of nutrition and inadequate health care. In India the farmers mainly rear goats on grazing and browsing fallow lands and rangelands. Generally goat keepers do not feed concentrates due to their poor economic condition and lack of awareness on the benefits of supplementation especially the pregnant does. But only grazing is not sufficient to support the complete requirement of nutrients in the last stage of pregnancy and hence an additional ration is recommended for these animals. Concentrate feed supplementation to pregnant does and ewes during advance phase of pregnancy ensure adequate nutrient supply and promote growth performance of both the mother and the growing foetus (Tripathi et al., 2007; Chellapandian, 2016). Various studies have proved that a calculated amount of concentrate supplementation along with browsing would improve body weight gain in pregnant does and kids (Sirohi et al.,2014; Sahu et al., 2013). Considering this scenario and future possibilities, it was realized that an improvement in body weight gain and mutton productivity of free ranging Sirohi breed could be achieved if the requirements for growth are met through supplementation of additional nutrients. Hence this study was conducted to assess the effect of supplementation of concentrate feed during periparturient period upon growth performance of native Sirohi goats and their kids in field conditions.

Materials and Methods

The experiment was conducted at farmer’s field of Amlikheda village of Neemuch district (Madhya Pradesh, India). For the trial a total of 30 locally available pregnant does of Sirohi breed having similarity in age, body weight and parity (2nd to 5th parity) were selected. Availing knowledge about the breeding history obtained by the farmers the expected date of kidding was estimated of pregnant does. The selected does were randomly allotted to three treatment groups based on complete randomized design, each compromising 10 pregnant does. The pregnant goats were divided into three groups of 10 does each and kept in different feeding regimens as follows-

Treatment 1 (T0): Control; normal browsing at range system

Treatment 2 (T1): Control plus daily supplementation @ 200 g concentrate

Treatment 3 (T2): Control plus daily supplementation @ 300 g concentrate

Feeding of concentrate was practiced for 60 days to does before the expected date of kidding. The ingredient composition of the concentrate mixture contained maize, groundnut oil cake, rice polish, wheat bran, mineral mixture and common salt in 40, 26, 10,22,1.5 and 0.5 respectively (Sahu et al., 2013). The complete study was conducted for five months period (60 days pre partum and 90 days post partum). Five days adaptation period for concentrate feeding was provided to the treatment groups. At the time of feeding in morning, concentrate was given in separate utensils as per requirement. The individual body weight of the doe was recorded at the beginning of the experiment and subsequently at fortnightly intervals in the morning hours before feeding and watering and average weight was recorded on 0, 15, 30, 45 and 60 days of experimental feeding (prepartum) and 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90th day of postpartum.

The data generated were compiled and analyzed using one way ANOVA (Snedecor and Cochran, 2004) using statistical software SPSS (version 19th).

Result and Discussion

At the end of the study all the does were healthy and kidding was normal without any complications. Production performance of experimental does during the experiment period of gestation is depicted in Table 1. The pregnant does initial body weights were non-significantly different (ranging from 34.40 ± 4.52 to 35.07 ± 5.23 kg) as the does were selected according to their body weight (B.W), age and parity. In all the three treatments body weight of the does increased with the advancement in pregnancy till kidding reaching the final body weight ranging from 37.32 ± 0.49 kg (T0) to 40.31 ± 0.50 kg (T2) after 60 days of concentrate supplementation. BW ranged from 35±0.41 to 37.32±0.49 kg (T0), 34.40±0.71 to 38.92±0.28 kg (T1) and 35.07±0.41 to 40.31±0.50 corresponding to T3 from beginning till 60 days of concentrate supplementation.

Average body weight gain of goats was significantly (P< 0.05) higher in T2 and non significantly in T1 than in T0 during the experiment period of gestation. Additional supplementation of concentrate caused significant increase in live weight among the does in T1 and T2 group. The result was in consonance with the findings of Chaturvedi et al. (2010) in ewes, Sultana et al.(2012) in Black Bengal does and Sahu et al. (2013) in advance pregnant Ganjam does when similar feeding regime was followed. Sirohi et al. (2013) reported comparatively higher body weight of does supplemented with additional concentrate than control during advanced phase of gestation. When comparison was done for test day milk yield, the milk yield was highest in T2 group does, followed by T1 and then T0 group does. This difference may be again due to extra concentrate supplementation during advance period of gestation. Milk yield was also more in ewes supplemented additional concentrate in late gestation period and increase was upto 200 g/day (Chaturvedi et al., 2010). Further it was supported by Sibanda et al. (1997) that amount of feed offered in lactation had a positive effect upon milk yield and there was an increasing trend for milk yields to pre-partum dietary intake.

Table 1: Growth and production performance of does

Means bearing different superscripts in a row differ significantly (P<0.05)

Average live weight gain (kg) of does during prepartum period measured fortnightly is presented in Table 2. The BW at fortnightly interval was greater in T1 and T2 as compared to T0 till kidding however the difference was found to be statistically non significant. After 30 days of concentrate supplementation no significant difference was seen in body weight in all treatments. The cumulative live weight gain of does was significantly higher in T2 (3.11 ± 0.31 kg) during 0-45 days after supplementation than T0 (2.01 ± 0.26 kg), however no significant difference in BW was found between T1 and T2. During period of 0-60 days the cumulative live weight gain varied significantly among the different treatments with the lowest value in T0 (2.42 ± 0.18 kg) to highest value in T2 (5.23 ± 0.21 kg). This might be due to insufficient nutrient requirement meet only through grazing and to fulfill the requirements during pregnancy, does might have mobilized their body reserve which led to decrease in BW. The higher body weight attained by the does in T1 and T2 might be attributed to the supplementation of balanced concentrates in these groups. The finding is in concordance with the result reported by Sahu et al. (2013) in Ganjam does.

Table 2: Average live weight gain (kg) of does during prepartum period

Means bearing different superscripts in a row differ significantly (P<0.05)

Growth and production performance of kids is presented in Table 3. Average birth weight of kids from steamed up group was higher than that of the control group, however the result was non-significant. The kids suckled from T1 and T2 group goats retained higher average daily gain up to three months of age. The average BW gain was significantly (P<0.05) higher in T2 group when compared to T0 group. Similar result was observed by Sirohi et al. (2013) with significantly higher birth weight in kids from steamed up group than that of the control group. However the difference in kids BW was found due to breed difference. Further it was supported by Meel et al.(2010) where recorded weight at birth and 3 month 2.35 and 12.8 kg, respectively in Sirohi goat kids. Gain in BW was also observed in T1 group kids than T0 group however the difference was non-significant. Chaturvedi et al. (2010) in ewes and Ray (2009) in Ganjam does also reported similar findings of significant difference in the average body weight gain in different treatments due to supplementation of concentrate mixture during the last 2 months of gestation. Further weaning of the kids in all the groups was done at three months of age. Average daily gain (ADG) of kids of T1 does (126.00g) and T2 does (135.00g) was higher than that of kids of T0 does (102.00g). The reason for the increase in BW gain and ADG might be due to additional concentrate supplementation in advance pregnancy to does, so better growth of foetus and also availability of sufficient milk for suckling after birth till weaning. The birth weight of the kids is also influenced by the nutrition the dam received during the pregnancy term, Otuma and Osakwe, 2008, Roy et al. (1997) and Singh and Ramachnadran, (2007). Additionally, the BW of doe at kidding had positive and significant effect on birth, 3 and 12 months of BW (Bhaskar et al.,2015). The finding was in consonance with study of Sirohi et al. (2013) where average daily gain of kids of does supplemented with extra concentrate (115.00g) was higher than that of kids of non supplemented does (105.11g). Although ADG in our study was more and this might be due to different managemental practices. This proves that goats reared on extra feed supplementation rich in protein delivered healthy kids with higher body weight at birth and at weaning that in conventional system (Nnadi et al. 2007).

Table 3: Growth and production performance of kids

Means bearing different superscripts in a row differ significantly (P<0.05)

Average live weight gain (kg) of does during postpartum period is presented in Table 4. The postpartum weight of does after kidding ranged from 34.11 kg (T0) to 34.87 kg (T3). The loss of body weight in different treatments was 2.42, 4.52 and 5.23 kg in T1, T2 and T3 respectively from the prepartum body weight of the does after 60 days of concentrate supplementation. The loss was highest at T2 indicating the weight of foetus or born kids. As, the additional concentrate intake ensured increase in readily available carbohydrates and nitrogen which improved the growth of animals (Lee et al., 2001) at any stage. During mid pregnancy the nutrient requirement of foetus are still low but the requirement during advance gestation is high placental tissue growth , if low plane of nutrition or restricted feeding, it will be unable to adequately nourish the foetus in final stage of pregnancy and consequently birth weight will be compromised (Acero-Camelo et al., 2008 and Rafiq et al., 2003)

The average body weight gain during 0-75 days and 0-90 days postpartum was significantly higher in T2 (300 g supplementation) compared to T1 (non supplemented group), but the difference between BW gain in T0 and T1 was found to be non-significant. The average live weight gain during 0-45 days and 0-90 day’s postpartum period ranged from 2.61±0.16 to 1.53±0.10 and 3.06±0.14 kg to 2.07±0.71 kg in T2 and T0 respectively. The present finding is in concordance with the findings of Joshi et al. (2004) and Bushara et al. (2010) who reported an increase body weight of doe at weaning because of the effect of supplementation.

Table 4: Average live weight gain (kg) of does during postpartum period

Means bearing different superscripts in a row differ significantly (P<0.05)

Conclusion

The present study to evaluate the effect of different concentrate level supplementation on the periparturient growth performance of grazing does and their kids in extensive system revealed that the concentrate supplementation improved the periparturient body weight of Sirohi does, increases the energy status in grazing goats around kidding and the kids from these dams are born with higher body weight.

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