Abstract
Twelve castrated male Black Bengal goats with an average live weight of 10.3 kg (8 months old) were used in a $2{\times}2$ factorial arrangement to study the effects of dietary crude protein concentration [20.3% (HP) and 16.9% (LP)] and feeding level [ad libitum and 85% of ad libitum (restricted)] on growth and carcass characteristics. Ad libitum feeding, on average, significantly (p<0.05 to p<0.01) increased daily live weight (6.27 vs -5.86 g), dry mater intake (409 vs 351 g/d), estimated gain in carcass (0.195 vs -0.200 kg) and empty body weight (0.385 vs -0.350 kg), chemically extracted fat in meat sample (6.89 vs 6.48%), depth of M. longissimus dorsi (22.1 vs 18.3 mm) and gut and caul fat (170 vs 130 g) compared with restricted feeding regime. The greater intake of dietary protein from the HP diet resulted in significantly (p<0.05 to p<0.01) greater values for depth (20.9 vs 19.5 mm) and width (32.4 vs 27.9 mm) of M. longissimus dorsi, gut and caul fat (190 vs 110 g) and also perirenal and retroperitoneal fat (85 vs 50 g) than those of the goats that received the LP diet. Similarly, the HP diet had significantly (p<0.05 to p<0.01) higher values for CP digestibility and DCP concentration than those of the LP diet. The results indicated that growth rate and carcass gain were highest in goats fed the HP diet ad libitum and therefore, diet containing 20.3% CP may be suggested for feeding growing goats.