Feed Intake, Weight Gain and Carcass Characteristics of Doyogena Yearling Ram Fed on Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana) Hay and Supplemented with Local Energy-Rich Feed Sources

摘要

An experiment was conducted to evaluate fattening performance of Doyogena yearling ram supplemented with energy-rich feedsat Dubo research sub-station, Southern Ethiopia. Local energy rich feeds used in this study were enset corm, Ensete verticosum (welw.) Cheesman, taro tuber (Colocasia esculenta) and sugarcane whole part (Saccharum officenarum) on top of tethered grazing on Rhodes (Chloris gayana) hay. The treatments were arranged in a Completely Randomized Block Design (CRBD). Six animals were assigned to each treatment and animals were considered as replicates. All animals were fed on a basal diet ad lib hay plus 300 g/day of concentrate mix (86.5% wheat bran, 13% noug cake (Guizotia abyssinica) and 0.5% salt) in addition to 3 h per day of tethered grazing on native pasture. The treatments were: T1 = (no additional feed) as control; T2, taro tuber/ head/day); T3, enset corm DM/head/day); T4, sugar cane/head/day on DM basis. The results indicated that DM intake (DMI, g/head/day) of T1 was higher (p<0.05) compared to T2 and T3. The Crude Protein intake (CP) was higher for T1 compared to other treatment options. Energy intake of T2 was significantly higher (p<0.05) compared to T1. Sheep fed on T1 and T2 demonstrated higher (p<0.05) weight changes, average daily gain and feed conversion efficiency compared to sugarcane. Estimates of partial budget indicated that feeding taro resulted in 19 and 34% more feed valuesover sugarcane and enset, respectively. The results indicated that taro could be one of the potential energy rich local feeds that could be used for sheepfinishing targeting festive season markets in crop-livestock production system.