Effects of supplementing Rice Straw with Pigeon Pea Forage on Performance of Yankasa Sheep

Abstract

Studies were conducted to evolution the feeding value of rice straw (RS) supplemented with varying levels of pigeon pea forage (PPF)as dry season feed for yearling Yankasa ewes. Twent yearling ewes with an average live weight of 15.02kg were randomly assigned to four treatments. Five ewes ner treatment comprising a basal RS diet fed ad libiitium (0.0% PPF), and ad libitium RS supplemented the feed ingredients showed tha RS had 10.81% CP, 5/11% liginin and 4.2% silica while ppf had 15.75% CP, 3.63% ligmim and 0.5mh/kg tannin. in terms of mineral contents analyzed. PPF was higher thanRS only in calcium. The results of the feeding trial showed increase feed intake with increase in level of PPF supplementation. Ewes on the unsupplemented and 0.5% body weight supplementation lost weight (-2.01kg and -1.6kg respectively) while those on 1.0 and 1.5% supplementation had minimal(1.25kg and 1.06kg respectively) weight gain. The digestibility and nitrogen balance showed significant difference (p<0.05) in the digestion of DM, NDF and ADF across the treatments. Supplementing RS diet wit o.1% of the body weight PPF resulted in better digestibility of all nutrients. Nitrogen retention across all treatments were high and ranged between 86.18 to 90.06 percent