Effect of Feeding Cotton Seed Cake, Dried Acacia saligna, Sesbania sesban or Vigna Unguiculata on Growth and Carcass Parameters of Begait Sheep in North Ethiopia

Abstract

The present study was designed to assess the effects of replacing cotton seed cake by Dried Acacia Saligna, Sesbania Sesban and Vigna unguiculata (cowpea) on growth and carcass characteristics of Begait sheep fed grass hay as basal diet and wheat bran as energy source. Twenty four yearling Begait male sheep with an average initial body weight of 25 ± 1.39 kg (mean ± SD) were used in randomized complete block design (RCBD) that lasted for 90 days. Treatments consisted of ad libitum feeding of natural pasture grass hay plus 200g Dry matter (DM) wheat bran and additionally supplementing with 100g, 250g, 140g and 180g DM per head per day of cotton seed cake (CSC), Acacia Saligna (AS), Sesbania Sesban (SS) and Cowpea (VU) respectively, each calculated to give 67.6g CP on iso-nitrogenous basis. Lambs were categorized into six blocks of four lambs each based on their initial body weight. CSC and SS resulted in higher (P<0.05) final body weights than VU; However, the results of body weight change, average daily gain and feed conversion efficiency in CSC, AS and SS were not significantly different (P>0.05) from each other. Hot carcass weight ranged from 14 kg to 16 kg. Slaughter weight, empty body weight and dressing percentage on slaughter body weight were higher in CSC (cotton seed cake), SS (S. sasban) and AS (A. saligna) as compared to lambs supplemented with VU (cowpea) while VU was not significantly different with AS and SS, Which reflected that the supplements were comparable in their potential to supply nutrients to improve the growth and carcass parameter of sheep. Therefore dried A. saligna and S. sesban foliages can be used to replace commercial concentrate feeds as protein sources.