International Journal of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development Studies (IJAERDS)

EA Journals

Wheat Bran

The Effect of Substitution of Dry Bamboo Leaves at Different Proportions with Concentrate Mix on Feed Intake, Digestibility and Live Weight Gain of Local Sheep Fed Tef Straw (Published)

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

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