Abstract

A total of twenty apparently healthy Yankassa rams, 9 to 11 months of age and weighing 11.83 to 12.50 kg were used in a completely randomized design unpinning to determine the effect of partial and total replacement of maize and wheat offal with Biscuit Waste Meal (BWM) and Leucaena leucocephala leaf hay (Llh) as a source of protein and energy. The animals were assigned to five groups of four rams per group, balanced for weight and used in the trial that lasted for 84 days. BMW and Llh mixture was used to replace maize and wheat offal mixture at 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% in formulated diets. Dry matter intake, crude protein intake and daily weight gain were all significantly (P<0.05) affected by the dietary treatments. It was also observed that dry matter digestibility, crude protein digestibility, energy digestibility and feed cost per gram declined significantly (P<0.05) with increase in inclusion level of BWM and Llh mixture in the diet. Gross energy intake and chilling loss were not significantly (P>0.05) influenced by dietary treatments. However, dry matter intake followed the same pattern as crude protein intake while crude fibre intake increased (P<0.05) with higher inclusion levels of the test mixture. In addition, the values obtained for wholesale cuts in terms of the shoulder, the rack, the breast shank and flank and the loin as percentage of carcass weight were significantly (P<0.05) affected. This could be attributed to feed conversation (feed: gain) ratio. Based on the performance of the animals, it was concluded that BWM and Llh mixture could be used as a potential source of protein and energy for fattening small ruminant.

Key words: Evaluation, fattening, biscuit waste, Leucaena leucocephala, yankassa ram.