RUMEN METABOLITES OF YANKASA RAMS FED UREA TREATED AND ENSILED MILLET STOVER BASED DIET WITH CONCENTRATES

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of feeding urea treated and ensiled millet stover based diet with supplements on rumen metabolites of growing Yankasa. Thirty (30) growing Yankasa rams weighing 16.35 to 18.21 kg were allotted to six treatments of five animals per treatment in a Completely Randomized Design. Four kg urea was dissolved in 100 litres of water sprinkled on 100kg of crushed millet stover and ensiled for 21 days was used as basal diet. A concentrate diet consisting of 300g of cotton seed cake diet 1, Faidherbia albida meal diet 2, CSC and maize offal diet 3, FA and maize offal diet 4, CSC and wheat offal diet 5 and FA and wheat offal diet 6, all fed 150g twice daily. Fifty (50mls) of rumen liquor was withdrawn from 3 Yankasa rams of each diet to determine pH and short chain fatty acids. The values ranged from 5.87 to 7.68 for pH after feeding while for total short chain fatty acids they ranged from 40.26 to 51.60 after feeding respectively. Rams fed FA:WO 50:50 diet recorded higher pH and total short chain fatty acids and could be recommended for growing Yankasa rams.