Evaluation of Tithonia diversifolia Hemsl. A Gray as a supplement in the feeding of dairy goats

The effect of diet supplemention of dairy goats with Tithonia diversifolia on the pro-ductive, economic and bromatological com-position of milk was evaluated.The research was conducted at the Santa Lucía Experimental Farm of the National University of Costa Rica. Six adult Saanen goats were used in a 3x3 Latin square design, replicated in two squares and balanced for re-sidual effects. The goats were fed a diet based on Pennisetum purpureum, molasses, miner-als, and rice semolina. Three treatments were evaluated: T0 (P. purpureum + 1.04 kg of dry matter (DM) of balanced feed (BF)); T25 (P. purpureum + 0.78 kg DM of BF + 0.25 kg DM of T. diversifolia), and T50 (P. purpure-um + 0.52 kg DM of BF + 0.45 kg DM of T. diversifolia). Dry matter intake (DMI), milk production, bromatological quality, and diet costs were evaluated. DMI of 1.58, 1.73, and 1.67 kg was obtained in treatments T0, T25, and T50, respectively. T25 showed the best productive response with 2.22 kg of milk per day and a fat content of 4.34%. Treatment T50 reached the highest levels of total sol-ids (TS), non-fat solids (NFS), and protein, 12.39, 7.95, and 3.02, respectively. The costs required to produce one kilogram of milk varied between 22.3 and 24.2 cents, with T50 showing better economic performance.