Compiled by : KANDAMBO BRIAN T.

GIGGS
Qualification : 17BSAS

Research Project Final Presentation, 2019

 Presentation layout
Introduction
o Background of the study
o Statement of the problem
o Objectives of the study
o Hypotheses of the study
o Significance of the study
Materials and Methods
Data Analysis
Results
Discussions
Conclusion
Recommendations
References
 Introduction
 Globally, the livestock sector is the most important agricultural
sub-sector in terms of value-added products (Ali, 2007).

 Approximately 300 million of the rural communities in the Sub-

Saharan Africa depend on livestock to sustain livelihoods
(Thornton, 2010).

 In addition to provision of tangible products, goats contribute

towards the livelihoods of the poor through accumulation of
wealth (Lebbie, 2004).
 Background of the Study
 One of the major avenues for improving goat productivity in semi-
arid areas is, through supplementary feeding with proteins and
minerals feeds (Thornton, 2010).
 Marula tree nuts have been recognized as potential source of
nutrients (carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals) and
antioxidant in livestock feeds (Gouwakinnou et al., 2011).
 Marula trees (Sclerocarya birrea) are abundant in the northern and
north-eastern regions of Namibia and the fruit pulp is used for
brewing a traditional alcoholic drink locally known as Omaongo.
 Marula seed cake is available after oil extraction from Marula tree
fruits (Malebana et al., 2018).
 The Kalahari Red goat is a meat goat breed originating from South
Africa.
 Statement of the Problem
 Availability of low quantity and quality of pastures in semi-arid countries
(Mlambo et al., 2011). The lack of feed ingredients is a striking restricting
component towards increased goat (and other animals) production in
Namibia.

 High cost of commercial feed for livestock farmers.

 Feed costs represent 65-70% of complete livestock production costs (Erb

et al., 2012).

 The increase in feed cost negatively impact on intensification of goat

production in this way bringing about inability to satisfy the expanded
need for goat products prompting reliance on overpriced imports (Erb et
al., 2012).
 Objectives of the Study
 Main objective:

 To compare the effects of Marula seed cake (Sclerocarya birrea)

and Commercial pellets as protein supplement on the feed intake
and growth performance on weaned kids of Kalahari Red goats.
 Specific Objectives
1. To determine the feed intake of Kalahari Red goat when
supplemented with either Marula seed cake or Commercial
pellets as protein sources.

2. To determine the live weight and weight gain of Kalahari Red goat
when supplemented with either Marula seed cake or Commercial
pellets as protein sources.
 Hypotheses of the study
Ho: There is no difference between Marula seed cake (Sclerocarya
birrea) and Commercial pellets as protein supplement on the feed
intake and growth performance on weaned kids of Kalahari red
goats.

H1: There is a difference between of Marula seed cake (Sclerocarya

birrea) and Commercial pellets as protein supplement on the feed
intake and growth performance on weaned kids of Kalahari red
goats.
 Significance of the study
There is a need for research of other high protein and affordable
feed resources such as the Marula seed cake (Thornton, 2010) that
can be used for supplementing ruminants.

Knowledge and recommendation generated from this study will be

transmitted to local farmers and thereby contributing to improved
goat productivity and improve animal`s body weight.
 Materials and Methods
 Study area
oThe study was being done at the University of Namibia Neudamm
Campus using the small stock pens.
oNeudamm Campus is ± 30 kilometers east of Windhoek, Khomas
region.
oThe campus is located at 22°30′ 07″ S and at 17° 22′ 14″ E, at an
altitude of 1762 meters above sea level.
oThe average temperature and rainfall varies between -7 and 44˚C
and 229-247mm respectively (Mendelsohn, et al., 2002).
oVegetation cover is dominated by Acacia shrubs and trees, such as
(Acacia karroo) and (Senegalia mellifera) , annual grasses, such as
Chloris virgata etc and perennial grasses such as Melinis repens,
Heteropogon contortus etc (Gold, et al., 2001).
 Materials and Methods
Collection of feed ingredients and Marula seed cake pellets
preparation.
o Feed ingredients such as the grass hay, salt and Senegalia mellifera
were sourced from Neudamm campus.
o Marula seed cake was sourced from Eudafano women’s co-
operative, Oshana region.
o Yellow maize meal and molatek molasses was bought from Agra
retailer, Windhoek.
 Materials and Methods
Processing of Senegalia mellifera and MSC pellets preparation
 Materials and Methods
 Experimental design and diets
oA Complete Randomized Block Design (CRBD) was used with sex
being the blocking factor. Four males and females Kalahari Red kids
were used in the feeding trail.
oDietary treatments
• Control group that was fed a basal diet of grass hay, plus Ram- ewe-
lamb pellets as a protein supplement,
• Experiment group was fed a basal diet of grass hay plus a formulated
pellets that contain Marula seed cake as a protein supplement.
oThe kids on the respective dietary treatments were fed for 52 days,
10 days adaptation period and 42 days for data recording.
oGrass hay was used as a basal diet for both treatments
 Materials and Methods
 Animals and animal management
oEight weaned Kalahari red kids with a mean induction body weight
of 19.4 kg were used.
oEach kid was housed individually in clean pens (1.5 m length x 1 m
width x 0.92 m height) with concrete floors in a well-ventilated
animal shed.
oThe kids had ad libitum access to feed and water.
oKids were fed twice daily at 4% weekly body weight.
 Housing of kids
Materials and Methods
Data collection
oFeed offered and feed left was measured daily using an electronic
balance scale and recorded to determine feed intake.
oThe body weight gains was measured weekly and the average
weight gain was determined.
𝐴𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑔
oFeed conversion ration =
𝐴𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔𝑕𝑡 𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛 (𝑔)
Materials and Methods
Chemical analysis of feed sample
o MSC pellets, Lamb pellets and grass hay were milled to pass a 1 mm screen using
a rotor mill.
o Dry matter (DM) was estimated by drying samples in an forced air oven at 105°C
for 24 hours.
o Organic matter (OM) was estimated by ashing samples in a muffle furnace at
550°C for 6 hours.
o Ether extract (EE) was determined using a Soxhlet apparatus with petroleum ether
as a solvent according to the method of AOAC (1999).
o Acid detergent fiber and neutral detergent fiber was determined using an ANKOM
200 fiber analyzer.
o Protein was determined by Dumas nitrogen and total nitrogen content.
Data analysis
 Data on feed intake and weight were entered in Microsoft excel then they
transferred to SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences)
 Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed using the
general linear mixed effects model (GLMM).
 Residual analysis was done to check if the assumptions of ANOVA were not
grossly violated to compromise the generalizations
 One way ANOVA was used to analyze for chemical composition of the diets
 The mathematical model used
o Yijk=µ+αi+βj(i)+Tκ+(αi)iκ+εijκ
Where
o µ is the overall mean for the experiment
o αi is the effect of the ith treatment
o βj(i) is the effect of the jth goat of the ith treatment
o Tκ is the effect of the κth week
o (αi)iκ is the interaction between ith treatment and κth week
o εijκ is the random error term which is normally distribute with a zero mean.
Results: Chemical composition of the diets
%Parameters Marula seed cake pellets Commercial pellets P-value SEM

Dry matter 92.1 90.5 0.008 0.237

Crude protein 17.0 14.3 0.055 0.711

Organic matter 91.5 79.1 0.082 3.806

Ash matter 8.5 20.9 0.802 3.814

Ether extract 14.9 4.5 0.014 1.737

Acid detergent fiber 14.7 13.7 0.247 0.553

Neutral detergent fiber 27.1 29.9 0.063 0.786

Results: Dry matter intake and nutrient intake
of the goats
Parameter Experiment group Control group P-value SEM

Total dry matter intake (g/d) 690 730 0.000 0.004

Total crude protein intake (g/d) 140 120 0.001 0.003

Total organic matter intake (g/d) 740 690 0.001 0.011

Total acid detergent fiber intake (g/d) 120 120 0.609 0.002

Total neutral detergent fiber intake (g/d) 230 250 0.000 0.004
Results: Weekly feed intake
1
0.9
0.8
Feed intake (kg/d)

0.7
0.6
Control
0.5
0.4 Experiment
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Weeks
Results: Weekly live weight
25

24

23
Weight (kg)

22 Control

21
Experimental

20

19

18
0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Weeks
Results: Growth performance
Parameter Experiment Control P-value SEM

DMI (g/d) 690 730 0.000 0.004

Initial weight (kg) 18.90 19.70 0.658 1.214

Final weight (kg) 23.75 23.15 0.808 1.671

Total weight gain (kg) 4.85 3.45 0.602 0.282

ADG (g/d) 115.0 82.0 0.537 0.036

ADI (g/d) 809 832 0.704 0.041

FCR 7.01 10.13 0.330 3.838

Discussions: Composition of diets
The MSC diet reported a %DM content of 92.1 which was lower than what
was reported by Malebana et al. (2018) who reported a %DM content of
95.84.
Commercial pellets %DM content is 90.5 which is higher than the %DM
content reported by Rahman et al. (2014) which was 88%.
 MSC diet had a CP content of about 17% less than what was observed by
Malebana et al. (2018) who reported 32.47%.
MSC diet had a OM content of 91.5% which is higher than (87%) reported
by Mlambo et al. (2011), however the OM content of commercial diet is
79.1% which lower than (89%) observed by Rahman et al. (2014).
Commercial diet reported an NDF content of 29.9% which was higher than
(24%) reported by Rahman et al. (2014), while MSC diet reported ADF and
NDF values of 14.7% and 27.1% respectively and hence these values where
higher than what was reported by Mlambo et al. (2011) who reported 18%
and 20.78% for ADF and NDF respectively, Malebana et al. (2018)
reported 7.77% and 14.5% for ADF and NDF respectively.
Discussions: Dry matter intake and nutrient
intake
Total DM intake for the MSC diet is reported 690g/d which higher
than 473g/d reported by Mlambo et al. (2011) who concluded that
groups supplemented with MSC had the lowest OM intake (208g/d)
but finding from the study disagree as MSC diet had the highest OM
intake of 740g/d.
Goats supplemented with MSC relatively took longer period to
adapt to MSC compared to the other treatment and this is results
are in disagreement with the findings of Zhang et al. (2007), who
concluded that oilseed supplementation had no adverse effects on
DM intake of kids.
DM intake of Commercial diet reported 730g/d which is lower than
880g/d that was reported by Rahman et al. (2014).
Discussions: Dry matter intake and nutrient
intake
The MSC diet reported CP intake of 140g/d which was higher then
(59.91g/d) reported by Abdulrazak et al. (2005).
While CP intake of the Commercial diet reported 120g/d which is
higher than (96.83g/d) reported by Rahman et al. (2014).
MSC diet reported 120g/d and 250g/d for ADF intake and NDF intake
respectively which was higher than the fiber fraction reported by
Mlambo et al. (2011) who reported 97.6g/d and 165.g/d for ADF and
NDF intake respectively.
Discussions: Growth performance
There were no difference in terms of initial and final weight between
the two treatments (18.90kg – 19.70kg) and final weight (23.75kg –
23.15kg), hence there was no differences in total weight gain (4.85
kg and 3.45 kg for MSC diet and Commercial diet respectively, the
results are similar with Rahman et al. (2014) where both groups
were not different with respect to initial (22.1 – 23.0 kg) and final
(28.6 – 303.3 kg), consequently there were no differences in body
weight gain between the two groups.
 Commercial diet reported ADG of 82.0g/d which is higher than
45.0g/d reported by Saul (2007). FCR of the commercial diet was
observed to be 10 which was lower than what was observed by
Rahman et al. (2014) and FCR was reported to be 12 while Saul
(2007) reported 15.44.
Conclusion
oThere was no difference in the feed intake and growth
performance of the Kalahari kids fed either the lamb pellets or
the Marula seed cake based pellets.

oThe MSC-based diet, met the nutritional requirements of the

growing Kalahari goat kids.
Recommendations
The use of Marula seed cake (MSC) as a protein source is recommended as this is
economical compared to the use of soya bean meal which is not locally available.
 The use of Marula seed cake would enable farmers to formulate their own
cheaper rations and improve the profitability of their goat enterprises.
However, due to the current limitation of Marula seed cake supply, the researcher
recommend the use of 30% MSC, especially to commercial feed companies which
use large quantities of protein during feed production.
Although the protein content of Marula seed cake is high, the presence of lipids
may limit its utilization due to detrimental effects of high lipid level in feedstuffs.
Thus a recommendation for the efficient extraction of oil from the seed before
the cake is used for ruminant nutrition.
 Those techniques efficient enough to extract the highest proportion of oil would
produce Marula seed cake with higher crude protein concentration.
It is also recommended that Marula trees should be cultivated and propagated in
order to increase the supply of MSC in Namibia.
 References
o Abdulrazak, S.A., Njuguna, E. G. and Karau, P. K. (2005) The effect of
supplementing Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana) hay with Acacia tortilis leaves and
pods mixture on intake, digestibility and growth performance on goats. Livest.
Res. Rural Dev. (17) Article #134.
o Ali, J. (2007). Livestock sector development and implications for rural poverty
alleviation in India. Livestock Research for Rural Development, 19(2), 1-15.
o AOAC (1999) Method number 976.06. In: Official Methods of Analysis of AOAC
International. 16th Edition. Association of Official Analytical Chemists, Arlington,
VA, USA.
o Erb, K., Mayer, A. and Kastner, T.,. (2012). The impact of industrial grain fed
livestock Production on Food Security. Final Report.
o Gold, J., Muller, A. and Mitlin, D. (2001). The principles of local agenda 21 in
windhoek: Collective Action and the urban Environment Action plans and agenda.
London:IIED., 21(9), 1-58.
o Gouwakinnou, G. N., Lykke, A. M., Assogbadjo, A. E., et al. (2011). Local
knowlegde, pattern and diversity of use of Sclerocarya birrea. Journal of
Ethnobiologhy and Ethnomedicine,, 7(8), 1-9.
o Lebbie, S. (2004). Goats under household conditions. Small Ruminant Research,
51, 131-136.
 References
o Mendelson, J., Jarvis. A., Roberts, C., and Robertson, T.,. (2002). Atlas of
Namibia a portrait of land and ts people. Cape Town: David Philip.
o Malebana, I. M. M., Nkosi, D. B., Erlwanger, K. H, and Chivandi, E. (2018).
Effect of dietary marula nut meal on carcass characteritics and meat
quality of male dorper lambs. Johannesburg: Animal Production Institute.
o Mlambo, V., Dlamini, B.J., Nkambule, M.T., Mhazo, N. and Sikosana, J.L.N.
(2011). Nutritional evaluation of marula (Sclerocarya birrea) seed cake as a
protein supplement for goats fed grass hay. Tropical Agriculture.
o Rahman, M.M., Abdullah, R.B, Wan Khaduah W.E., Nakagawa, T and
Akashi, R. (2014). Feed intake and growth performance of goats offered
Napier grass, supplemented with concentrate pellets and soya waste.
Sains Malayisana, 43(7), 967-971.
o Thornton, P. K. (2010). Livestock production: recent trends, future
prospects. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B:
Biological Sciences, 365(1554), 2853-2867.
o Zhang, R.H., Mustafa, A.F. and Zhao, X. (2007) Effects of feeding oilseeds
on nutrient utilization by lactating ewes. Small Rumin. Res. 67 307 – 311.