Faidherbia albida is highly regarded by herdsmen and farmers in arid and semi-arid regions of Africa (Gutteridge et al., 1994). The leaves and pods are palatable to livestock. The pods had the highest intake of several legume species in cattle, goats and sheep (Shayo et al., 1999).
Cattle
It is recommended to grind pods in order to feed cattle more efficiently (Shayo et al., 1999). Ground pods supplemented to dairy cows fed on grass hay were found to be suitable for milk production up to 1 kg pods (DM) per day (Bwire et al., 2004).
Sheep
Faidherbia albida pods were beneficial to sheep fed on noug (Guizotia abyssinica) or groundnut meal and resulted in higher liveweight gain (Nsahlai et al., 1999).
Goats
Faidherbia albida has a high forage value for goats (Yahaya et al., 2000). In Senegal, goats offered several browse species had a preference for apple-ring tree (Cisse et al., 2002).
Male goats in Sudan fed up to 45% pods in the diet had a better feed intake and feed conversion ratio (Ibrahim et al., 2003). Feeding lactating goats with pods and urea-treated sorghum straw resulted in increased milk yield (Ahmed et al., 2001).
