Khejri (Prosopis cineraria) is an important fodder tree of arid and semi-arid regions of India. Its leaves are extensively fed to sheep and goats as fresh loppings and as dry during scarcity periods. Comparative utilization of leaves of this tree by growing and adult sheep and goats was studied. The kids and lambs consumed, on an average, 672 and 537g dry matter/head/day from dry Khejri leaves. The kids gained and the lambs lost weight on dry and green loppings. The bucks consumed 3.4 kg and the rams 3.8 kg dry matter/100 kg body weight. The digestibility co-efficients of all the nutrients were higher in bucks than rams. The crude protein digestibility was 33.3% in bucks and only 10.1% in rams. The nitrogen and calcium balances were also higher for bucks. The DCP and TDN values were 4.6 and 31.6% in goats and 1.5 and 24.9% in sheep respectively. It was concluded that the goats utilize Khejri tree leaves more efficiently than sheep.
Goats, Prosopis Cineraria, Nutrition, Sheep, Tree leaves
