Effect of Pineapple By-Product Silage on Growth Performance of Goat

Feed with adequate nutrients will produce high quality livestock production. Commercial feed and concentrates can give a significant impact on the growth performance of the goats, however they are quite expensive. One of the reasons that cause environmental pollution is the spoilage of agriculture waste. Pineapple residue is one of the agricultural wastes that can be converted and used as animal feedstuff. Pineapple by-products consist of the residual pulp, skins, stem and leaves. This study was aimed to investigate the utilization of pineapple residue as silage, and to determine the body weight gain, feed intake and body condition score of goats fed with pineapple silage. A total of 8 young male crossbreed goats were used for 60 days of feeding trial. The goats were divided into two groups of 4 goats each; control and treatment 1 group. Commercial pellet was assigned for both groups. Napier grass was offered for control group while pineapple silage mix with Napier grass was for treatment 1. Based on the results, treatment 1 group did not showed significantly difference on average feed intake (86.25 vs 119.11 kg/group), average body weight change (15.37 vs 14.88 kg/group), average body condition score (2.40 vs 2.31) and average daily gain (0.08 vs 0.06 kg/d/group) than control group, respectively. In addition, feed conversion ratio of Napier grass mixed with pineapple by-product silage was lower than Napier grass (18.92 vs 33.75) but still higher compared to common FCR of goat. The utilization of pineapple residue as silage would become an alternative way to produce a low cost feedstuff and reduce the environmental pollution.