Intake, digestibility and nitrogen balance of sheep fed bambara groundnut haulm as supplement to a maize stover basal diet

Abstract

In order to maximise the use of underutilised feed resources as ruminant feed supplement in the Sub-Saharan African region, the haulm of bambara groundnut was evaluated for its chemical nutrients, intake potential, digestion and nitrogen balance of sheep fed maize stover as a basal diet.Four cultivars of Bambara groundnut were selected based on their agronomic and nutritional characteristics for metabolism studies using four Djanllonke rams with an average weight of 15.0 ± 0.5 kg. The animals were adjusted to the diets for 14 days after which they were weighed and assigned randomly to one of the four test diets: T1 (Maize stover [MS] only, the basal diet); T2 (MS+ 150 g Bambara groundnut haulm [BSG]); T3 (MS+ 300 g [BHG]) and T4 (MS + 450 g BGH) in a 4 × 4 Latin square design. The animals had an ad libitum access to water. Dry matter intake of the basal diets increased as the supplement level increased (p < 0.05). The total feed intake did not differ (p > 0.05) between treatments. Digestibility co-efficient was significantly lower (p < 0.05) for T1 which had no BGH supplementation compared to the other treatment groups supplemented with BGH which were also statistically (p > 0.05) similar. Generally, faecal, urine and nitrogen balance values did not differ (p > 0.05) among treatment groups. Bambara groundnut haulm could therefore be used as a supplement to poor quality roughages to increase the productivity of ruminant livestock in tropical regions.