Performance of sheep fed soybean stover and cassava crumb based diets

Small Ruminant Research;31(3): 229-238

A digestibility study was conducted with West African Dwarf (WAD) sheep offered four varieties of soybean stovers (SBS) basal diets, TGx 1019-2EN (SBS1), TGx 1448-2E (SBS2), TGx 1660-19F (SBS3) and TGx 932-2E (SBS4) and a growth study with WAD sheep offered three varieties of soybean stovers SBS1, SBS2 and SBS3 incorporated into three diets such that the roughage source in the diet was a 50:50 mixture of stover and hay supplemented with 15 percent cassava crumb to investigate feed intake, digestibility and body weight change. In Experiment 1, similar (p>0.05) mean voluntary dry matter intake (VDMI) (37.32 (+ or -) 2.19 g kg-1 BW 0.75 day -1) observed for sheep fed SBS1, SBS2 and SBS3 was higher (p<0.05) than 31.59 (+ or -) 2.19 g kg -1 BW0.75 day -1 of SBS4. Crude protein intake pattern was identical to that of N-intake and the similar (p>0.05) DM mean N-intake (0.68 (+ or -) 0.04 g kg -1 BW 0.75 day -1) of SBS1, SBS2 and SBS4 was higher (p<0.05) than 0.44 (+ or -) 0.04 g kg -1 BW 0.75 day -1) of SBS3, although 0.47 (+ or -) 0.02 g kg -1 BW 0.75 day -1 N-retained by sheep fed SBS2 was significantly (p<0.05) higher than N-retained values of other SBS. Crude protein digestibility (CPD) value (73.46 (+ or -) 3.08 percent) of sheep fed SBS2 was also higher (p<0.05) than the similar (p>0.05) mean (61.32 (+ or -) 3.08 percent) CPD value of sheep fed SBS1 and SBS3 while sheep fed SBS3 recorded the least (p<0.05) CPD value of 34.08 (+ or -) 3.08 percent. Also, neutral detergent fibre digestibility (NDFD) value (64.64 (+ or -) 5.90 percent) of sheep fed SBS2 was higher (p<0.05) than the similar (p>0.05) mean NDFD value (49.02 (+ or -) 5.90 percent) of sheep fed SBS1, SBS3 and SBS4. In Experiment 2, average VDMI of sheep fed diet I (54.58 (+ or -) 1.93 g kg -1 BW 0.75 day -1) was higher (p<0.05) than the corresponding mean VDMI (48.41 (+ or -) 1.93 g kg -1 BW 0.75 day -1) of sheep fed diets 2 and 3. Similar mean dry matter digestibility (DMD) value (68.25 (+ or -) 1.89 percent) of sheep fed diets 1 and 3 was higher (p<0.05) than DMD value (56.68 (+ or -) 1.89 percent of diet 2. N-retained as percentage of N-intake (g kg -1 BW 0.75 day -1) of sheep fed diet 1 (78.83 (+ or -) 2.58) was higher (p<0.05) than (64.49 (+ or -) 1.58) of diet 2 and (61.3 (+ or -) 2.58) of diet 3 was the lowest (p<0.05) mean value (30.50 (+ or -) 3.13) of diet 2 and 3. Also, sheep fed diet 1 recorded growth rate (g day -1) (18.68 (+ or -) 0.16) which was higher (p<0.05) than 15.38 (+ or -) 0.16 of sheep fed diet 3 and sheep fed diet 2 recorded the lowest (p<0.05) growth rate of 10.99.