Feeding poultry litter to grazing Boran Zebu bulls and Ogaden sheep in Ethiopia

Abstract

The objective of these studies were to investigate the digestibility of poultry litter of layers and to add poultry litter to grazing Boran Zebu bulls and Ogaden sheep in East Ethiopia. Two feeding experiments (132 and 102 days) with Boran Zebu bulls (10 and 16 bulls per trial) and one feeding experiment with female Ogaden sheep (30 ewes) were carried out. All animals were grazing all day long. During the night the animals of all trials were divided into two groups each. The animals of one group of each experiment obtained poultry litter ad libitum without any other feedstuffs. Apart from feeding trials digestion experiments were carried out in order to determine the digestibility of poultry litter in 4 Ogaden sheep. The apparent digestibility of organic matter and crude protein of poultry litter amounted to 69.8 and 82.8%, the net energy content was indicated with 474 EFUc per kg of dry matter. The daily weight gain of Boran Zebu bulls fed on poultry litter was by 40 and 91 g (6.5 and 13.6% in exp. 1 and 2) higher than that of control groups. Especially during the dry season (Feb./March 1982) bulls supplemented with poultry litter were highly superior in daily weight gain (84 and 310 g per day more in exp. 1 and 2) to unsupplemented groups. The daily weight gain of Ogaden sheep fed on poultry litter in a short-term experiment (56 days) under improved grazing conditions (April-June 1982) was by 13 g per day higher than that of control animals (weight gain: 18 and 31 g per animal and day).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)