Effect of feeding sweet Blue lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L. haulm) and concentrate mixture on growth performance and carcass characteristics of Washera lambs

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the feeding value of graded level of sweet blue lupin haulm and concentrate mixture in the diets of lambs. For the feeding trial, twenty-four yearling Washera lambs with initial body weight of 24.6 kg ± 0.57 were used. The design of the experiment was randomized complete block design. The four experimental feeds were sweet blue lupin haulm to concentrate mixture ratio of 0:453 g, 251 g:362 g, 503 g:272 g and 754 g:181 g per day per head, respectively. Natural pasture hay was used as a basal diet. Results showed that supplementation of sweet blue lupin haulm and concentrate mixture significantly increased total dry matter, crude protein and organic matter intakes. Supplementation of sweet blue lupin haulm and concentrate mixture improved the digestibility of crude protein by 4%. Average daily weight gain was higher for the groups supplemented by sweet blue lupin haulm and concentrate mixture (68.7-87.4 g/day). Carcass parameters were slightly lower for lambs supplemented with higher level of sweet blue lupin haulm, while those supplemented with concentrate mixture and up to 40% sweet blue lupin haulm did not show significant difference. It was concluded that supplementing of mixture of 80% or 60% concentrate mixture with 20% or 40% sweet blue lupin haulm, respectively, in natural pasture hay-based diet can serve as locally available protein source to partially substitute commercial concentrate feeds for Washera lambs in Ethiopia.