INFLUENCE OF CASSAVA FOLIAGE SUPPLEMENTATION ON THE PERFORMANCE OF WEST AFRICAN DWARF SHEEP FED GROUNDNUT HAULMS

Abstract

The performance of sixteen (16) West African dwarf sheep (WAD) with average body weight of 13.20 + 0.34kg were evaluated in a complete randomized design to determine the effect of varying inclusion levels of cassava foliage (CFL) at 0, 10, 20 and 30% in groundnut haulms (GH) based diets. Results showed that CFL supplementation of GH had a positive effect (P<0.05) on dry matter (DM) intake of GH and weight gain of sheep. Among the supplemented treatments, sheep fed 20% CFL showed better DM intake (455.74¢/day), weight gain (45.24g/day) and feed conversion ratio (9.96) with sheep on sole GH diet having reduced (P<0.05) weights of 27.74 g/day. Digestibility values for dry matier and crude protein increased (P<0.05) with an increase with the inclusion levels of CFL in the diets but similar values observed in 20 and 30% CFL diets. It was however concluded that supplementing groundnut haulms with 20% inclusion levels of cassava foliage improved feed intake, digestibility, and weight gain in WAD sheep.