Abstract:
Forage management in goat raising for high qualities of goat milk was studied in order to evaluate the
effect of four forages; Leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala), Guinea grass (Panicum maximum),
'pineapple skin (Annonous squamosus), and Ruzi grass tBrachiaria ruziziensis), from 3 farms in Ampor
Cha-am, Petchburi Province. All forages and goat milk; collected for two consequence morning and
evening of four times of lactation, were analyzed nutritional compositions. Some of goat milk from
different farms of forage feeding was collected for quality improvement by adding skim milk at 0, 10
and 20%. The result showed that leucaena contained higher protein, lipid and fiber contents than the
other crops at 21.57, 3.31 and 43.23%, respectively. However, pineapple (skin) contained highest
carbohydrate and four fatty acids (butyric, caproic, caprylic and capric) at 57.27 and 0.05, 0.07, 0.11
and 0.17, respectively. Guinea grass consisted of the highest acid detergent fiber (ADF) and neutral
detergent fiber (NDF) at 41.68 and 66.64%, respectively. Goat feeding either with guinea grass and
pineapple (skin) and/ or leucaena and ruzi grass gave a higher amount of milk of each goat at 1.68 and
1.65 kg/day and the milk consisted of high lipid contents at 5.09 and 5.28%, respectively. The protein
content of milk from goat feeding with guinea + pineapple and leucaena + ruzi grass was lower than the
milk of goat feeding only with leucaena. Moreover, goat feed with guinea grass and pineapple (skin)
resulted in the highest of four fatty acids (butyric, caproic, caprylic and capric) at 1.35, 1.77, 2.04 and
1.52 %, respectively. In this study, it was found that the amount of morning milk was high and
consisted of a higher protein, but its lipid was lower than evening milk. The time of collecting lactation
was not affected on amount and quality of milk. The result also showed that the amount of milk and
lipid in milk was related to the amount of the feeding crop. The amount of feeding crop and protein and
lipid contents in feeding crop did not affect on protein content of the milk. Moreover, the 4 fatty acids
in milk were not related to fatty acids in the feeding crop. In addition, the goat feeding with guinea
grass and pineapple (skin) received the highest score of overall aroma acceptance but goat milk from the
farm using leucaena and ruzi grass as forage crop received the lowest score of overall aroma acceptance.
Although adding skim milk (cow) for goat milk improvement resulted in a lower of sensory scores of
rancidity, buttery and goaty, the skim milk could not improve the flavor by mouth. This study could be
recommended that the farmer could select ruzi grass and/ or leucaena as the forage crop for higher
amount of goat milk, higher nutrition quality and good aroma accepted by the consumer than the other
forage crops.