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We examine how goat farmers’ perceptions of weather variability and climate change condition their coping and adaptation behaviour. Through a survey, we obtain a household level data from goat prod...

An in vivo digestibility trial was conducted to evaluate the digestibility of six forages. These were selected indigenous browse species and groundnut haulms in Lawra and Jirapa Districts of the Upper West Region of Ghana. Groundnut haulms served as a control due to its known good digestibility in small ruminants. Thirty West African Dwarf (WAD) young castrated billy goats with a mean age of 8 months were used. The average live body weight was 8.9 ± 0.1 kg. The animals were randomly assigned to the six treatments and replicated five times in a completely randomized design. They were confined in metabolism cages. The adaptation period was 3 weeks after which data was taken for 10 days. The treatments were the leaves and tiny twigs of T1 Annona senegalensis, T2 Ficus gnaphalocarpa, T3 Pericopsis laxiflora, T4 Pterocarpus erinaceus, T5 Afzelia africana, and T6 (control) Arachis hypogaea. Feed intake, faecal matter and urine output were measured. The results indicated that dry matter (DM) contents of the feedstuffs were less than 50% but crude protein (CP) contents were higher than the minimum required for sustaining ruminants. Neutral and acid detergent fibre contents were high, and F. gnaphalocarpa, in particular, contained a higher level of phosphorus (P). The amounts of feed intakes were typical of most fodder species with the exception of P. laxiflora and P. erinaceus, which were lower (P A. africana fibre appeared to be lower. Nitrogen retention was positive for all test species with the exception of P. laxiflora, which was negative. Mortality was recorded in animals on P. laxiflora, and the rate was high. Pericopsis laxiflora leaves, even though morphologically similar to the leaves of P. erinaceus, were not a suitable fodder. Ficus gnaphalocarpa appeared to be the overall best fodder species in terms of nutrient uptake.

Three guinea fowl populations from Northern Ghana were compared in terms of their body weight, growth rates, and survivability during the first 11 weeks of life. Keets (n = 865) were hatched from eggs collected from 32 sampling areas divided into eleven subpopulations within three populations in Northern Ghana. Together with an experimental flock maintained at Animal Research Institute (ARI flock), these birds were raised and appraised for weekly body weights, weekly growth rates, and survivability. Weekly body weights did not differ significantly (p > 0.05) among the three populations, although ARI flock were significantly heavier (p ˂ 0.05) compared to the main populations until the fourth week. In contrast, among the subpopulations, significant differences emerged in body weights from the second week and were more pronounced from the sixth week. Growth rates measured as weekly weight gains also differed significantly among subpopulations beyond the second week, although differences in growth rates were not significantly different among whole populations. The mean values for total feed intake, daily feed intake, and feed conversion ratio (FCR) did not vary significantly (p > 0.05) between the populations. Therefore, although the variations in body weight and growth rates were limited among the populations, there existed significant variations among subpopulations, creating opportunities to establish genetically divergent populations for growth rate and to improve early growth rates and body weights in local guinea fowls by selection. High survivability observed in the ARI flock compared to keets from the three populations of Northern Ghana was likely due to good breeder stock management practices despite their common ancestry.

The article "In vivo digestibility of six selected fodder species by goats in northern Ghana," written by F. K. Avornyo et al., was originally published electronically on the publisher's internet portal (currently SpringerLink) on 13 July 2019 without open access.

Announcement from Editorial Board The following article published in Vol.3 No.3 2014 has been retracted. Title: Water Balance Dynamics in Mixed Crop-Livestock Systems of Northern Ghana: Unraveling the Interactions between Farm-Level and Landscape Fluxes in the Face of Climate Change Authors: F. Kizito1*, E. K. Panyan2, A. Ayantunde3, D. Bossio1, N. Karbo2, F. K. Avornyo2, K. Tengan2 AJCC Editorial Board November 26, 2014

An experiment was conducted on 524 guinea keets to test the effect of four dietary protein levels on general performance. The four levels evaluated were 0.22, 0.23, 0.24 and 0.25g dietary protein/g feed. Data were collected on feed intake, weight gains and mortality. Partial cost-benefit analysis was also done. The results showed significant feed intake differences between treatments (P

The effect of concentrate feed supplementation, healthcare and season on dry matter and nitrogen apparent digestibility and growth performance of sheep were investigated in the smallholder production system. A total of 819 sheep belonging to 36 smallholder farmers were studied. Animals in each pen were randomly assigned to one of 2 feeding regimes. The first regime (control) was grazing and crop residues supplementation (75 g DM/d). In the second regime, sheep were treated as in first and given an additional package of concentrate feed (180 g DM/d) plus orthodox prophylactic and curative healthcare. Dry matter and nitrogen apparent digestibility and growth performance of animals were determined seasonally. The dry matter intake among animals on concentrate supplementation was higher (P