A feeding and digestibility trials were conducted at Assosa ATVET college, Benishangul-Gumuz Region, Ethiopia, using twenty five yearling local sheep weighing on average 18.7 + 2.12 (mean + SD) kg, to investigate the effect of substituting dry bamboo leaves in a concentrate mix on feed intake, digestibility and body weight (BW) gain of sheep. A randomized complete block design with five treatments and five replications was used to conduct the experiment. The treatments included feeding a basal diet of tef straw alone (T1, control), and supplementation with dry bamboo leaves at 100% (T2), 67% bamboo leaves hay and 33% concentrate mixture (T3), 67% concentrate mixture and 33% bamboo leaves hay (T4)and100% concentrate mixture (T5).The supplements were given at 300g DM/head/day The concentrate mixture consisted of wheat bran (WB) and noug seed cake (NSC) at the ratio of (2:1). The animals were housed in individual pens and daily offered tef straw, allowing 35% refusal. Water and salt block comprising of sodium chloride were available free choice. The results indicated that there were higher (P<0.001) total DM intake in the supplemented (775.2-798.5 g/head/day) than the control (502 g/head/day) treatment. The group that consumed tef straw alone and those supplemented with 67:33 concentrate to bamboo mix (T4) consumed more (P<0.001) basal diet than the other treatments Sheep supplemented with the dry bamboo leaves and concentrate mix at different proportions had higher (P < 0.001) CP intake than the control ones. The CP intake was 40.9, 100.9, 96.2, 93.9 and 88.5 g for T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5, respectively. Similarly, there was higher (P<0.001) daily BW gain in the supplemented sheep (14.4-36g/head/day) than in the control (-37g/ head /day) ones. The digestibility of CP (P<0.001) DM and OM (P<0.001) were higher in the supplemented than in the control treatment.
Keywords: Bamboo, Noug Seed Cake, Tef Straw, Wheat Bran
