Effect of Commercial and Non-conventional Feeds, Leaves of Indigenous and Improved Multipurpose Tree Supplementation on Feed Intake, Digestibility and Growth Performance of Sheep

Acute shortage of feed and very poor quality of the available feeds during the dry season are the prime limiting factors for increasing the production and productivity of small ruminants in most agroecological zones of Ethiopia. Thus, the study evaluated the effect of concentrate mixture of wheat bran and Sesame seed cake (T₁), Atella (T₂), Faidherbia albida (T₃) and Sesbania sesban leaves (T₄) on feed intake, digestibility, body weight change and economical profitability of local sheep.

Twenty-four yearling intact local male sheep with mean Initial Body Weight (IBW) of 18 ±1.55 kg (mean ± SD) were used for the experiment. The study was conducted using randomized complete block design and sheep were blocked into six based on their IBW. Sheep within a block were randomly assigned to treatments. The experiment had 90 days feeding trial and 7 days digestibility trial after 15 and 3 days acclimatization period, respectively. The amount of supplements offered was 300 (T₁), 330 (T₂), 360 (T₃) and 280 (T₄) g/day on DM basis, each calculated to supply 73.6 g/day Crude Protein (CP).

Hay intake in T₁, T₂ and T₄ (397˗400 ±1.44g/day) were significantly (P < 0.001) higher than T₃ (375±1.44 g/day). Total DM intake was in the order of T₂ = T₃>T₁> T₄ (p<0.001) (698, 730, 735 and 677 g/day for T₁, T₂, T₃ and T₄, respectively. Digestibility of CP was in the order of T₁ > T₂>T₄ > T₃ (p<0.001), while the value in T₂ differed only with T₃ (75.6, 73.4, 60.2 and 67.9 for T₁, T₂, T₃ and T₄, respectively). Average Daily Gain (ADG) was 50, 45, 38 and 42 g/day for T₁, T₂, T₃ and T₄, respectively and differed only between T₁ and T₃. The partial budget analysis indicated that, sheep supplemented with Atella returned higher net income (5.46 US$) than T₁ (1.93 US$), T₃ (2.56 US$) and T₄ (3.2 US$); similarly, MRR was also higher in T₂ (93.7%) compared to T₃ (56.1%) and T₄ (50.4%).

Sheep producers can use the supplement feeds in the order of T₂, T₄ and T₃, respectively, based on their availability.