Abstract

The study were conducted at Sekota district using twenty four yearling male Aberegelle goats for 100 days to evaluate the effect of substitution of concentrate mix with cowpea hay on biological and economic benefits. The treatments were natural grass hay alone (T1) and supplemented with 100 concentrate mix (T2), 75: 25 (T3), 50:50 (T4), 25:75 (T5) concentrate mix: cowpea hay and 100 cowpea hay (T6) per head per day. Randomized complete block design with six treatments and five replications was used. The crude protein (CP) content of grass hay, concentrate mix and cowpea hay were 6.80, 16.30 and 19.62, respectively. Daily hay dry matter (DM) intake of the control was significantly higher (P< 0.05) than other treatments. Apparent DM, organic matter (OM), acid detergent fiber (ADF), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), CP digestibility and body weight change of supplemented treatments were significant (P<0.001) as compared to the control, however there were no significant differences in intake, digestibility, linear body measurement and growth performance of goats fed different proportion of concentrate and cowpea hay. However, sole cowpea hay supplementation performs better in terms of net return and farmers’ preference. Therefore, supplementation of sole cowpea hay would be both biologically, economically and socially acceptable level for Abergelle goats bred. © 2020, Online Journal of Animal and Feed Research. All Rights Reserved