Performance, blood chemistry, carcass and economic evaluation of sheep on dietary supplements of cabbage and carrot wastes

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the effect of cabbage and carrot wastes supplementation on performance, blood chemistry, carcass and economic evaluation of sheep. Twenty four West African dwarf male sheep of about 8 – 9 months old with average initial weight of 9.00 ± 0.94kg were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments with six sheep per treatment, in a completely randomized design. The sheep received 60% guinea grass and 40% concentrate diet for TD1 (control group), while 50% guinea grass and 40% concentrate diet with either 10% cabbage waste, 5% cabbage plus 5% carrot wastes or 10% carrot waste were for diets TD2, TD3 and TD4 respectively. The results showed that sheep on TD1 were significantly (p<0.05) higher in feed conversion ratio, creatinine, urea, rumen with intestine and total fixed cost. Diet TD2 was significantly (p<0.05) improved in daily weight gain, digestibility of dry matter, crude protein with fiber and nitrogen free extract, haemoglobin, packed cell volume, mean corpuscular haemoglobin, white blood cell, lymphocyte, neutrophil, total protein, albumin, glucose, dressing percentage, sale of sheep, total revenue and net profit. Red blood cell, cholesterol and triglyceride were increased significantly (p<0.05) in TD3, while daily feed intake, digestibility of ash, feed cost and total variable cost were better in TD4. Meanwhile, no significant difference (p>0.05) was found in initial body weight, ether extract digestibility, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration, monocyte, eosinophil, basophil, globulin and some relative organs weight among sheep on treatments. It can be concluded that inclusion level of 10% cabbage waste as supplement to 50% guinea grass and 40% concentrate diet (TD2) improved performance, health status and carcass indices of sheep with reduced cost that resulted in higher net profit.