GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND CARCASS TRAITS OF GOATS FED WITH OIL PALM BY-PRODUCTS BASED FEED PELLET

The study was conducted to develop a nutrient-balanced goat feed pellet from oil palm by-products and to assess the effects of the feed pellet on growth performance and carcass traits of Katjang goats. "freatment groups consisted of oil palm by-products based (OPB), control without addition of oil palm by-products control (CNT) and commercial (COM) pellets. Twelve 12-month-old Katjang goats were assigned to the three treatment groups and subjected to 14-weeks of feeding trial. Each group was offered 1.5% body weight (BW) of respective pellets and ad libitum supply of Napier grass. Feed intake (Fl) was recorded daily and the BW of the goats was recorded weekly. At the end of the feeding trial, all goats were slaughtered for carcass traits study. All treatment groups showed no significant difference in BW increment (p=0.51) and average daily gain (ADG) (p=0.94). There were no significant differences (p>0.05) between the treatment groups for carcass traits parameters. As a conclusion, the OPB pellet has shown to contain complete nutrient for goat's diet and was comparable to the COM feed pellet in terms of growth performance of Katjang goat. The inclusion of oil palm by-products in the feed formulation did not adversely affect the carcass traits of the goats.