Effects of Faba Bean Hull, Noug Seed (Guizotia Abyssinica) Cake, Wheat Bran and their Mixtures Supplementation on Biological Performance and Economic Benefits of Farta Sheep Fed Natural Pasture Hay in Ethiopia

Abstract

The experiment was carried out to evaluate the supplementary effect of Faba bean hull (FBH), noug seed cake (NSC), wheat bran (WB) and their mixtures on biological performance and economic benefits of s in Farta sheep fed grass hay as basal diet. The treatments were grass hay (GH) ad libitum+200g NSC+100 g WB (T1); GH ad libitum +200g NSC+75 g WB+25g FBH (T2); GH ad libitum+200g NSC+50g WB+50g FBH (T3); GH ad libitum+200g NSC+25 g WB+75g FBH (T4) and GH ad libitum+200g NSC+100g FBH (T5). The feeding and digestibility trials were conducted for ninety and seven days, respectively. Data on composition of feeds and feces, dry matter (DM) and nutrient intake, DM and nutrients digestibility, BW changes and feed conversion efficiency (FCE) were collected. The basal DM intakes were 393.32, 393.85, 394.95, 396.04 and 396.98 g/day for T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5, respectively, which were not significant (P >0.05) among treatments. Total intake of DM, organic matter (OM) and CP were not significantly different among treatments (P>0.05). The CP and DM intake of experimental sheep were in the order of T1<T2<T3<T40.05). The partial budget analysis showed that sheep offered with relatively the highest level of CP (T4) and (T5) returned a higher net income (296.05 and 304.35ETB/head), respectively. The current experiment reveals that FBH could be an alternative supplement which may substitute WB in the diets of sheep in the highlands of Ethiopia.

Keywords

• agro-industrial by-products
• biological performance
• economic benefit
• farta sheep
• nutrient utilization