Effects of Cotton Seed Cake and Dry Poultry Litter Supplementation on Performance of Grazing Sheep in the Sahelian Zone of Nigeria

Abstract

Twelve Yankasa male sheep aged 12 - 18 months with a mean live weight of 29 ± 1.04 kg were used to determine the effects of supplementing cotton seed cake (CSC) (DPL) and dry poultry litter on performance and growth rate. The design was 3 × 4 latin square. The mean dry matter intake (DMI) were 1.22 and 1.26 kg/day for T1 (CSC) and T2 (DPL) respectively. There was significant difference between the supplemented groups and the control group. The dry matter digestibility (DMD) data were 68.5, 69.9 and 54.4% for T1(CSC), T2(DPL) and T3(Control) respectively. There was a significant difference between the supplemented groups and the control group. The corresponding live weight changes were 13.0, 15.37 and 6.60 g/day. Animalsfed with dry poultry litter (DPL) showed a significantly higher daily live weigh gain. Result of nitrogen intake, nitrogen in faeces, and nitrogen in urine were 29.9, 30.1 and 15.1; 15.5, 13.1 and 7.1 and 3.7, 6.7 and 4.7 for T1(CSC), T2(DPL) and T3(Control) respectively. The result showed that poultry litter could substitute cottonseed cake as source of Nitrogen for rumen microbes with a resultant increase in live weight