The importance of trees and shrubs as livestock feed in the arid and semi arid rangelands of Kenya: Case of Prosopis juliflora in Baringo district

This study was conducted to determine the potential of integrating Prosopis juliflora in drylands livestock production where the tree is abundant and has been reported by the community to be a menace to their livelihoods. Despite these allegations, the tree has great potential as a source of livestock feed among other many uses that has not been fully exploited. The overall aim of this study was therefore, to assess the feasibility of incorporating Prosopis juliflora seedpods into a typical dryland livestock production system. The study further sought to evaluate the economic viability of supplementing the goats with Prosopis juliflora through cost benefit analysis and find out the optimum supplementation level for improved performance. The experiment involved 20 weaner Galla goats of similar age (6 months) and weights (11-14 kg) which were randomly assigned to four treatments of five weaners each. The treatments were; No P. juliflora (0PJP), 100 g/goat/day P. juliflora (100PJP), 200 g/goat/day P. juliflora (200PJP), 400g/goat/day P. juliflora (400PJP). Supplementation involved providing the goats with their respective diets in the morning before mixed species range grass hay was offered as basal diet. The animals were weighed on weekly basis and weight gains calculated as previous week’s weight and current week’s weight. The experiment lasted for 70 days. Overall, all the treatment groups exhibited higher average weekly weight gains than the control group throughout the experimental period. However, for the first 3 weeks, this was not statistically significant (P<0.05). From the fifth week up to the tenth week, there was significant difference (P<0.05) in the growth rates for the treatments except for the control group. Overall, treatment 200Pjp exhibited highest total weight gain (3.96kg), followed by 400Pjp (2.70kg). Group 0Pjp lost weight by the end of the experiment (-0.009kgs). The cost benefit analysis indicated that it is profitable to supplement the goats with 200g/ goat/day, which was the most cost effective with a benefit cost ratio (BCR) of 1.50. The 100PJP was also cost effective but at a lower level BCR 0f 1.47. Treatment 400Pjp was not cost effective with BCR of 0.57, which is less than 1. It is therefore recommended that supplementation at optimum improves productivity.