Supplementation of Farta sheep fed hay with graded levels of concentrate mix consisting of noug seed meal and rice bran

Abstract

The study was carried out at Woreta, Ethiopia, to determine feed intake, digestibility, body weight (BW) change, and profitability of Farta sheep fed pasture hay alone or supplemented with graded levels of concentrate mix (CM) consisting of noug seed meal (NSM) and rice bran in 2:1 ratio. Twenty yearling intact male Farta sheep with BW of 16.9 +/- 1.68 kg (mean +/- SD) were used in randomized complete block design arranged into five blocks of four animals. The dietary treatments consisting of sole natural pasture hay (T1, control), hay +200 g of CM dry matter (DM) (T2, low), hay +300 g of CM DM (T3, medium), and hay +400 g of CM DM (T4, high) were randomly assigned to sheep within each block. Common salt and water were available to animals all the time. The supplements were offered twice daily in equal portions at 0800 and 1600 h. Supplementation with the CM increased (P < 0.001) DM, organic matter, crude protein, neutral detergent fiber, and acid detergent fiber intake and digestibility. The final BW and daily BW gains were higher (P < 0.001) for the supplemented compared to the control treatment. The study also revealed supplementation improved feed conversion efficiency and profitability. Among the supplemented treatments, the high level of supplementation resulted in better (P < 0.001) nutrient utilization, animal performance, and profitability. Thus, the high level of supplementation is recommended based on biological performance and profitability under conditions of this study.