Comparative evaluation of bambara nut waste and dry brewers spent grain as dry season feed supplements for west african dwarf sheep

Project Abstract

<p> Two feeding trials were conducted to investigate the growth and<br>physiological response of sheep fed forage with and without supplementary<br>bambara nut waste or brewers spent grain. First trial (Experiment I) assesed<br>the effects of dry season supplementation of bambara nut waste or dry<br>brewers spent grain on growth performance and blood metabolites (blood<br>plasma ammonia and blood plasma urea) of West African dwarf sheep,<br>while the Experiment 2 investigated the digestibility coefficients of<br>bambara nut waste and dry brewers spent grain. In experiment 1, nine sheep<br>(six females and three males) were randomly divided into three treatment<br>groups at three sheep per treatment with one sheep serving as a replicate.<br>The first group (control) was allowed to graze only. They were herded out at<br>0800hours and brought back at 500hours. The second and third groups<br>were given 500g of dry brewers spent grain or bambara nut waste at<br>8;00hours and at 1100 hours,, thereafter they grazed for the rest of the day.<br>Feed intake and body weights of the animals were recorded. The animals<br>were allowed a pre-experimental period of 3weeks while the feeding trial<br>itself lasted for ten weeks (December – February).<br>At 3 weeks blood was<br>collected from the animals for 4 days to determine the blood metabolites. In<br>experiment 2, six sheep (four females and two males) were allowed a<br>preliminary period of 14days, followed by7days faecal collection. They were<br>randomly divided into two groups (treatments) of three sheep per treatment<br>with one sheep serving as a replicate. One group was fed dry Brewers spent<br>grain and the other group fed bambara nut waste. Experiment 1 was carried<br>out using a completely randomized design (CRD). The supplement intake<br>for the first experiment, the cost implication of using the two supplements,<br>the proximate composition, nutrient intake for the second experiment and the<br>digestibility coefficients were compared using t-test. In experiment 1 there<br>were no significant (P&gt;0.05) differences between the two supplements in dry<br>matter, ash, ether extract and nitrogen- free extract while significant<br>(P 0.05) average final body weight, average daily weight gain,<br>average body weight change, blood plasma ammonia concentration, blood<br>plasma urea concentration and cost implication of feeding the two<br>supplements, which were significantly P &lt; 0.05) higher than those of<br>treatment 1while sheep on treatment 3 had higher (P&lt;0.05), feed intake <br></p>

Project Overview