EFFECTS OF LENTIL (Lens culinaris) SCREENING AS A REPLACEMENT FOR NOUG SEED CAKE (Guizotia abyssinica) ON THE DIETS OF GROWING FARTA LAMBS IN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

A study was performed with the objective to assess nutrient biological performance and assess economic feasibility of Farta lambs fed wheat straw (WS) as a basal feed and supplemented with lentil screening (LS) in replacement for noug seed cake (NSC). The experimental sheep were blocked into five based on their initial body weight and randomly assigned to treatment diets within each block. The experimental design used for this study was randomized complete block design (RCBD) with five replications. Result indicated %CP contents of experimental feeds were 26.13, 25.00 and 5.66 for lentil screening, NSC and WS, respectively. There was significant difference in WS DM intake (p<0.05) in all treatment groups. The supplement DM intake increased significantly (p<0.001) as lentil screening level increased from 0, 29.4, 55.4, 78.8, and 100% from (T1-T5), respectively. Total DM intake was significantly different (p<0.01) among all treatment groups but CP intake was not significantly different among treatments (p>0.05). Average daily body weight gain (ADG) and feed conversion efficiency (FCE) were significantly different (p<0.01) among treatment groups. Among treatment groups, T5 had higher (p<0.01) daily body weight gain (76.44 g/d) as compared to T4 (72.1 g/d), T3 (69.8 g/d), T2 (62.89 g/d), T1 (58.28 g/d). T5 returned a higher net income (110.94 Ethiopian Birr (EB)/sheep) as compared to the other treatment groups. From biological performance and economic return T5 could be recommended as an alternative supplement for growing Farta sheep both in biological performance and better economic gain.