Abstract:
In order to compare the effects of barnyard grass, millet straw and sorghum-sudangrass hybrid on fattening performance and nutrient digestibility of Liaoning cashmere goats with dual-purpose of cashmere and meat, twenty-four female Liaoning cashmere goats with dual-purpose of cashmere and meat(about 2.5 years and average bodyweight 43.83±0.98 kg) were randomly divided into four groups, with six goats in each group. Group 1 was the control group, which were fed the diets supplemented with 10.00% Chinese wildrye. Groups 2 to 4 were experimental groups, which replaced part of Chinese wildrye with 10.00% barnyard grass, millet straw and sorghum-sudangrass hybrid in turn. The pre-experiment lasted for 15 days, and the experimental period lasted for 60 days. The nutrients were analyzed in barnyard grass, millet straw and sorghum-sudan grass, and their dry matter(DM), crude protein(CP), crude fat(EE), crude fiber(CF), neutral detergent fiber(NDF), acid detergent fiber(ADF), ash, calcium(Ca) and phosphorus(P), gross energy(GE) were determined. The fasting body weight(BW) were determined at the beginning and end of the experiment to calculate daily gain and feed/gain. One week before the end of the experiment, the experimental goats were put into metabolic cage for 7 days to measure feed intake. Feces and urine samples were collected by total fecal collection method for 5 consecutive days, and nutrient apparent digestibility was measured. Fattening benefit analysis was conducted, including statistics on the cost of rations, total cost per unit of weight gain, profit per goat per day, etc. The results showed that the contents of CP and EE content in barnyard grass and sorghum-sudangrass hybrid were extremely significantly higher than those of millet straw(P<0.01), while the contents of CF and NDF were lower than those of millet straw, but the differences were not significant(P>0.05). The daily gain in the group 2 and 4 was higher than that in group 1 and group 3, and there was significantly diffidence between group 2 and group 1(P<0.01). The apparent digestibility of CP in the group 2 was significantly higher than that in the group 3 and group 1(P<0.05), and the apparent diges-tibility of CF in the group 2 and 4 were significantly higher than that in the group 1(P<0.05). The dietary costs in the three experiment groups was higher than that in the group 1, while the total cost of daily gain of group 2 and group 4 was lower than that in the group 1, and the daily profit of each goat in the group 2 was 2.09 yuan. Compared with the group 1,the daily profit of each goat in the group 2 was 0.78 yuan. The results indicated that the weight gain rate of barnyard grass and sorghum-sudangrass hybrid was faster was better in the production of Liaoning cashmere goat with both cashmere and meat, among which bamyard grass had the best economic benefit.