Effect of Feeding Acacia Pods (Acacia seyal) with or without Wheat Bran on Feed Intake and Digestibility of Tigray Highland Sheep in Hay Based Feed

Abstract

The study was conducted with the objectives to evaluate feed intake and digestibility of Tigray Highland sheep supplemented with Acacia seyal pods and wheat bran mix in hay based feeding. Twenty five Tigray Highland yearling rams with initial live body weight of 17.5 ± 1.7 kg (mean ± SD) were used. The experimental sheep were divided into five blocks of 5 rams each based on their initial body weight. The feeding trial consisted of grass hay (control), supplemented Acacia seyal pods, wheat bran and their mixture. A randomized complete block design was used to conduct the feeding trails. The chemical composition of grass hay in this experiment was found to be 119.5, 880.5, 84.4, 708.3 and 296.0 g Kg^-1 for ash, organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), Neutral detergent fiber (NDF), and Acid detergent fiber (ADF) parameters, respectively. The mean grass hay DM intake was; 481.8, 301.6, 298.9, 303.8 and 301.9 g/day for T₁, T₂, T₃, T₄ and T₅, respectively. The DM intake of supplemented animals were 299.3, 298.7, 299.3 and 296.6 g/day/ram for sole Acacia seyal pods, 2:1 ratio Acacia seyal pods and wheat bran, 1:2 ratio of Acacia seyal pods and wheat bran and wheat bran, respectively and the intake was 97.81% of their offer. Grass hay DM intake was significantly depressed (P<0.001) as compared from the supplementation. Total DM, OM and CP intake were significantly higher (P<0.001) in supplemented groups than the control animals. There was significant different (P<0.05) in digestible coefficient DM, OM, CP, and NDF whereas not significant different (P>0.05) in apparent digestibility ADF amongst treatments.

Keywords: acacia seyal pod, intake, wheat bran, digestibility