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Feed intake, digestibility, body weight and carcass parameters of Afar rams fed tef (Eragrostis tef) straw supplemented with graded levels of concentrate mix

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Abstract

The experiment was conducted at Alamata Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopia using 20 Afar rams with an initial body weight (BW) of 18.2 ± 1.76 (mean ± SD) kg. The objectives were to study the effect of supplementation with concentrate mix consisting of wheat bran (WB), noug seed cake (NSC) and sesame seed cake (SSC) at the ratio of 2:1:1 on dry matter (DM) basis, respectively on feed intake, digestibility, BW gain and carcass parameters of Afar rams fed tef (Eragrostis tef) straw basal diet. The experiment was arranged with four treatments and five replications in a randomized complete block design. The treatments included feeding sole tef straw (T1, control), and daily supplementation with the concentrate mix offered at 150 (T2, low), 250 (T3, medium) and 350 (T4, high) g DM per head. Total DM intake, crude protein (CP) digestibility, daily BW gain (P < 0.001), DM and organic matter (OM) digestibility, and carcass parameters (P < 0.05) were higher in the supplemented than in the control treatment. Intake of tef straw reduced as the level of supplementation increased, whereas the contrary was true for CP intake. Performance in carcass parameters was better for the medium compared to the low level of concentrate mix supplementation. Moreover, the medium level of supplementation did not substitute tef straw intake. Therefore, it is concluded that the medium level of concentrate mix supplement maintained the utilization of the roughage feed and resulted in better carcass parameters.

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Abbreviations

ADF:

acid detergent fiber

ADL:

acid detergent lignin

BW:

body weight

CP:

crude protein

DM:

dry matter

NDF:

neutral detergent fiber

NSC:

noug seed cake

OM:

organic matter

SSC:

sesame seed cake

WB:

wheat bran

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alamata Agricultural Research Center, P.O. Box 56, Alamata, Tigray, Ethiopia

    Tesfay Hagos

  2. Department of Animal Sciences, Haramaya University, P.O. Box 138, Dire-Dawa, Ethiopia

    Solomon Melaku

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  1. Tesfay Hagos
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  2. Solomon Melaku
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Correspondence to Solomon Melaku.

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Hagos, T., Melaku, S. Feed intake, digestibility, body weight and carcass parameters of Afar rams fed tef (Eragrostis tef) straw supplemented with graded levels of concentrate mix. Trop Anim Health Prod 41, 599–606 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-008-9230-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-008-9230-6

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