Participatory Evaluation of Dual Purpose Pigeon Pea (Cajanus Cajan) Leaves for Sheep Feeding

Abstract

The study on the potential use of pigeon pea leaves as sheep feed was carried out with eighteen local Sheep with an average initial weight of 15.2 ± 0.97 kg were randomly assigned to three dietary treatments. The experiment entailed a completely randomized design with 6 replications per treatment. Pigeon pea leaves (PPL) at three levels: 0%, 35% and 52%. The PPL 0% considered as a control group fed a natural grass. On dry matter (DM) basis PPL and natural grass contained 21.61 and 9.25% CP, 4.25 and 8.29% EE, 54.80 and 65.57% NDF and 39.75 and 36.08 ADF, respectively. Forage biomass production of pigeon pea was 8.35t/ha with crude protein yield of 1.56 t/ha, while the natural grass yield was 4.21 t/ha with CP yield of 0.33 t/ha.  Supplementation of PPL significantly (P<0.05) increased average daily gain of sheep but there was no significant (P<0.05) difference between sheep supplemented with PPL 0% and PPL 35% in terms of weight gain. Average daily live weight gain was significantly greater (P<0.05) for PPL52%. There was a significantly higher (p<0.05) PPL intake and weight gain obtained in treatment PPL52%. Therefore, supplementation of sheep with PPL52% pigeon pea leaves was found to be the best level under farmer condition especially in the lowland areas.

Keywords: Pigeon pea leaves, sheep, weight gain, feed intake