EFFECT OF FEEDING REGIME AND TIME OF SAMPLING ON RUMEN METABOLITES OF YANKASA RAMS FED BASAL DIET OF SORGHUM HAY OR SILAGE SUPPLEMENTED WITH CONCENTRATE

Abstract

The study was conducted at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria which aimed at evaluating the effect of feeding regime and time of sampling on rumen metabolites of growing Yankasa rams fed a basal diet of grain sorghum hay or silage supplemented with concentrate. Twelve (12) growing Yankasa rams averaging 17.0±0.2 kg were randomly assigned to four feeding regimes
treatment consisting of T1 = Sorghum hay + concentrate daily, T2 = Sorghum silage + concentratedaily, T3 = Sorghum silage + concentrate after 1-day and T4 = Sorghum silage + concentrate after 2- days. The result shows that the dry matter and crude protein contents of concentrate, hay and silage were 97.31 and 14.77 %, 94.41 and 11.35 % and 75.36 and 10.42 %, respectively. The dry matter (95.57 – 84.14%), crude protein (12.72 – 12.16%), NDF (47.88 – 38.27%) and ADF (25.00 – 24.19%) ranges were obtained for the treatment diets. Feeding regime had significant (P<0.05) effect on rumen indices considered with pH (5.48 – 6.20), temperature (31.41 – 34.59 oC), TVFAs (23.33 – 26.89 mmol) and NH3-N (8.81 – 10.52 mg/100) ranges, respectively. There was significant (P<0.05) effect of sampling time on rumen indices with higher pH (5.93) and NH3-N (10.74mg/100) obtained at 0 hours before feeding. Higher (P<0.05) TVFAs (31.00mmol) and temperature (35.53oC) were recorded at 8 and 4 hours post feeding, respectively. It can be concluded that sorghum silage or hay could be fed alongside concentrate every other day or 2-days after for high pH, temperature, TVFA and NH3-N.