Carcass characteristics and economic analysis of supplementing powdered coffee leaves to indigenous Wolaita highland sheep diets based on hay

Abstract

Sheep production in Ethiopia is an important activity for smallholder farmers, but the sector has been challenged by many factors among which feed shortage is the major one. To solve this challenge, farmers traditionally supplement sheep with coffee leaf. This study was conducted at Areka Agricultural Research Center, Wolaita zone, Southern Ethiopia, with the objectives of evaluating carcass yield, composition and economic profitability of supplementing powdered coffee leaves to indigenous Wolaita highland sheep fed hay-based diets. This experiment followed the layout of Completely Randomized Design (CRD) on twenty male intact sheep with mean initial body weight 17.4 ± 0.1 kg and five treatments. Treatments were T1, T2, T3, T4, and T5 with powdered coffee leave meal inclusion (CLPMI) proportion of 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20%, respectively with four replications per treatment. Concentrate mix (CM) of 300 gm on dry matter base/head/day was provided for the lambs. The trial was conducted for 90 days followed by digestibility trial of 7 days. Significant difference (P < 0.05) was observed among treatments on slaughter body weight, empty body weight, hot carcass weight and dressing percentage. On partial budget analysis, 20% of coffee leaves powder meal inclusion resulted in optimum DM intakes, weight gain and carcass yield. Higher net income (959.5ETB (17.26USD)/sheep) was obtained from the sheep supplemented with 20% inclusions (T5) of coffee leaves powder meal followed by T4 (15% powder coffee leaves meal inclusion), T3 (10%), T2 (5%) and T1 (0%). Thus, this study highlighted a positive potential of coffee leaves powder meal as a supplement to poor quality roughages.