Abstract
Five-month old Zebu calves were fed for 112 days either (1) cassava forage silage alone, (2) silage + 0.5kg for dried cassava chips, or (3) silage + 0.5 kg of dried cassava chips + 0.25 kg of cottonseed meal. Body weight gains, feed efficiency and protein utilization were significantly low for animals on the pure cassava forage diet. The addition of dried cassava chips (2) to the silage diet improved growth rate (59%) and feed efficiency (34%) over that of the base diet (1). However, the addition of cottonseed meal (3) to the diet (2) did not improve animal performance, suggesting that energy was more limiting than protein in the pure silage diet. Based on two harvests during a 210 day period, the annual production of cassava forage was calculated to the 75.5t ha-1 of fresh forage (14t ha-1 DM) and 3.48 t ha-1 of protein (N × 6.25)
