Performance and carcass characteristics of Yankasa ram fed with variable levels of biscuit waste and Leucaena leucocephala based diets

Abstract

A study was conducted to find out the performance and carcass characteristics of sheep fed diet in which biscuits waste (BWM) and Leucaena leucocephala leaf hay (L/h) mixture were used to replace maize and wheat offal mixture at zero (control), 25, 50, 70 and 100% replacement levels. In a completely randomize design, the experimental diet where designated B₀, B₁, B₂, B₃, B₄, respectively. The 20 growing Yankasa rams aged between 9 to 11 months with an initial average life weight of 12.17 ± 0.33 kg were randomly assign to the 5 dietary treatment with four rams per treatment. Data were collected to estimate dry matter intake (g/d /W^0.7 kg), daily mean life weight gain (g/d), feed efficiency and carcass indices. Dietary replacement of maize and wheat offal mixture with biscuit waste meal and L. leucocelphala leaf hay mixture significantly (P< 0.05) influenced the entire variable measured. However, animal on diet B₁ and B₂ in which biscuits waste and L. leucocephala leaf mixture replaced 25 and 50% maize and wheat offal mixture, were better when compared to the control (B₀) and other test diet in terms of performance and carcass characteristics. This was evident by higher DMI (77.18 and 76.84 g/d /W^0.75 kg), ADWG (134.40 and 129.52 g/d), feed efficiency (0.199 and 0.195), live shrunk weight (21.50 and 20.10 kg), dressing percentage (85.81 and 84.33%), chilled carcass weight (18.33 and 16.83 kg), wholesale cuts leg (9.18 and 8.73%), rack (3.11 and 2.78%), BSF (4.53 and 3.83%), neck added (2.51 and 1.78%) and rib eye area (6.06 and 8.29) which were obtained from the animal on these two diets. Broadly, the result in the present study indicated that 25 and 75% replacement level of maize and wheat offal mixture with biscuits waste and L. leucocephala leaf hay mixture are ideal for ruminant animal production because it improve both the performance and carcass characteristics of rams.

Key words: Performance, carcass, biscuit waste, Yankasa ram.