HAEMATOLOGICAL INDICES OF RED SOKOTO BUCKS FED DIETS SUPPLEMENTED WITH GRADED LEVELS OF SOYBEAN HULLS DURING EARLY RAINY SEASON GRAZING
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51791/njap.vi.7279Keywords:
Haematological indices, Red Sokoto bucks, soybean hulls, supplements, supplementationAbstract
The experiment was conducted to investigate the haematological response of Red Sokoto bucks to graded levels of soybean hulls during early rainy season grazing. Four supplements were formulated to contain 12% CP. Twelve bucks (12) were used for the experiments in a completely randomized design, three animals each as a replicate was randomly allocated into four (4) treatment diets containing varied inclusion levels of soybean hulls. Supplement 1 served as control diet, while 2, 3, and 4 contained 15.00, 22.50 and 30%. respectively. Animals were offered their respective supplements at 400g per head per day (200g each in the morning and evening) and thereafter allowed to graze the available forages. The experiments lasted for 84 days. Results of the experiments revealed that all the parameters measured were similar (p>0.05). However, PCV (6.73%) and Hb (10.00g/dL) were higher than values recorded in T2 (6.10%), T3 (6.13%) and T4 (6.03%) and for Hb T2 (8.0g/dL), T3 (8.73g/dL and T4 (9.07g/dL), respectively. It is therefore concluded that all the
supplements were within normal range as such did not have detrimental effects on blood parameters. It is recommended that supplement without soybean hulls can be fed to Red Sokoto bucks during early rainy season grazing.
