Pentas schimperiana is locally available and dominantly used as a dairy cattle feed in the Dawuro zone's Maraka district, Ethiopia. There is some information about its utilization practice, however, data on its nutritional benefit is limited. This research aimed to examine the chemical content and digestibility of P. schimperiana for use as cattle feed during the dry season. For this study, a 2x2 factorial design with two agro-ecologies (midland and highland) and two seasons (wet and dry) was used for this study. P. schimperiana leaves, twigs and stems were gathered and processed for laboratory analysis from two agro-ecologies and two seasons. The chemical composition, in-vitro digestibility, and in-Sacco degradability of the samples were determined after incubation at 0, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours. Effective degradability (ED) and Potential degradation (PD) were computed. The collected data were subjected to an Analysis of Variance and the means that had significant deference, the mean separation was performed by Tukey with alpha level of 0.05. In-vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) (87.41%) and crude protein (CP) (17.39%) were significantly higher in highland. Digestible crude protein (DCP) was significantly larger in dry than in the wet season with the content of neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), and acid detergent lignin (ADL) decreased. During the wet season, potential degradability (PD) and effective degradability (ED) of DM were highest in the highland with a decrease in leg time, which was related to the low content of ADF, ADL, NDF, tannin, and high CP in vegetative stages of P. schimperiana. The result indicates that P. schimperiana might be used as supplementary feeds to enhance utilization of low-quality feed resources and improve the performance of ruminants during the dry season when feed is scarce.

This study was conducted to assess livestock feed resources in Weliso district Ethiopia, in terms of quantity, evaluating feeding system, determining the balance of feed resources supply and livestock requirements and identify constraints and opportunities of livestock production in relation to availability of feeds. Stratified random and random sampling techniques were used to select the kebele and households. The district was stratified in to two agro ecologies high and mid land areas. A total of 175 households, 94 from three high land kebeles and 81 from three mid land kebeles were randomly selected for interview. Secondary data source, field observation, structured and semi-structured questionnaire interview were employed to generate data. The data were analyzed using GLMANOVA procedures statistical package for social sciences (SPSS, version 20). The result of the study indicated that natural pasture (35.52%), crop residues (34.49), fodder trees and shrubs (15.60), stubble crops(8.61) and non-conventional feed(4.46)were the proportion of major available feed resources across agro ecologies. The average annual dry matter produced from natural pasture, crop residues, fodder trees and shrubs, stubble crops, non conventional feed and improved forage were 4.15±0.13, 4.05±0.11, 1.32±0.01, 0.96±0.03, 0.26±0.01 and 0.32±0.01 tons/house hold/year, respectively. The average biomass yields of fodder trees and shrubs were 6.35-25.69kg/tree and 1.18-2.36 kg/shrub in high land and 8.04-36.06 kg/tree and 1.78-3.98 kg/shrub in mid land area. The feed supply in terms of DM, ME and DCP was 10.88± 0.36 tons, 68,575.5 MJ/Kg and 130.99 kg per household per year respectively. The feed balance was found to be negative and significant difference across agro ecology in the study district (p<0.05). The overall annual feed supply on a year round base meets only 66.83%, 31.41% and 88.18% of the DM, DCP and ME total requirements per household, respectively. Therefore, from the current study it was concluded that the availability of feed DM, ME and DCP did not satisfy the maintenance requirements of livestock in the study area. Alternative means of feed production and supply should be in place with the involvement of all stakeholders and development actors.