Effect of Millettia ferruginea (Birbra) foliage supplementation on feed intake, digestibility, body weight change and carcass characterstics of Washera sheep fed natural pasture grass hay basal diet

Abstract

AbstractsTwenty-four yearling male local Washera lambs with an average initial body weight of 18.14 ± 1.07 kg were used to assess the nutritional value of Millettia ferruginea. Experimental animals were grouped into six blocks of four animals, and each animal was randomly assigned to one of the four dietary treatment feeds. The treatments used were; Sole natural pasture grass hay (T1), and 150, 300, 450 g DM Millettia ferruginea leaf hay with ad libitum natural pasture grass hay assigned for (T2), (T3) and (T4), respectively. The feeding trial was carried out for 80 days followed by a 10 days of digestibility trial. Carcasses of each experimental animal were evaluated at the end of the digestibility experiment. Millettia ferruginea leaf hay had 224.6, 556.6, 360.7and 127.4 g/kg crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL), respectively. The average intakes of Millettia ferruginea leaf hay were 0, 133, 263 and 253 g/day for T1, T2, T3 and T4, in that order. The proportions of Millettia ferruginea leaf hay intake from the total dry matter (DM) were 0, 23.5, 44.1, and 43.3% for T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively. The total DM intake was not significant but showed a trend of T1 > T3 > T4 > T2. CP intake was higher for T3 and T4 with the least intake for T1. Final body weight measurement was higher for T3 and T1 but lower and negative for T2 and T4. Generally, body weight measurements were not consistent in the supplemented groups throughout the trial period. The weight of heart, spleen, and liver were higher for the supplemented groups compared to the sole grass hay. From the results of the current study, it can be concluded that, Millettia ferruginea had some limiting factors, which prevented the animal from efficiently utilize it. Therefore, this study revealed the indispensable role of animal feeding experiments with target animals to examine such impacts.

Using khat (Catha edulis) leftover meal as feed for sheep: its implication on feed intake, digestibility and growth.

“…The dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and ash content of mixed grass hay used in the present experiment was almost similar with other authors (Alemu et al, 2014;Gebru and Tesfay, 2017). The DM, CP and ash contents of the commercial feeds: noug seed cake, sesame cake and wheat short were comparable with previous studies (Gebru and Tesfay, 2017;Mekasha et al, 2008).…”

Evaluating Production Performance of Tigray Highland Sheep Supplemented with Air Dried Foliages of African Wild Olive and Red Thorn: A Case Study of Carcass Production

“…The results of the present study indicated that supplementation has a positive effect on most of the edible offal components (Table 2). This is in agreement with the findings of [10,17,18]. Among the edible offal components namely: tongue (P < 0.001), liver with gall bladder and tail (P < 0.01), total fat (omental and kidney) and omaso-abomasum (P < 0.05) were significantly heavier in the supplemented sheep as compared to the non-supplemented sheep.…”

Combinations of <i>Urochloa</i> hybrid Mulato II and natural pasture hays as a basal diet for growing Farta lambs in Ethiopia

“…In the current study, among the offal components classed as edible, the weights of liver and reticulo-rumen increased with increase in Mulato II inclusion in the ration. Similarly, Alemu et al (2014) and Gebreyohannes et al (2003) observed significant increase in liver weight with concentrate supplementation. In addition, Lawrence and Fowler (1998) reported an increase in liver weight following supplementation, which they attributed to the storage of reserve substances such as glycogen in the liver in supplemented sheep.…”