Supplementation of different level of corn silage with linseed meal on performance of black head Ogaden sheep fed grass hay

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to evaluate the supplementation effect of different level corn silage (CS) with linseed meal (LSM) on performance of black head Ogaden sheep. Twenty five yearling  male  sheep  with  a  mean  initial BW  of  14.85±0.31kg  were  assigned  into  five treatments in a randomized complete block design. Treatments were grass hay ad libitum + 60 g DM/day LSM alone (T₁) or supplemented with 100 (T₂), 200 (T₃), 300 (T₄) and 400 g DM/day CS (T₅). The experiment contains 90 days feeding and 7 days digestibility trials and carcass evaluation. CP (crude protein) content was 10.0, 8.6, and 30.4% and the NDF content was 76.8, 59.6 and 37.0% DM for grass hay, CS and LSM, respectively. Total DM intake was 575, 637, 695, 765 and 844 g/head/day and was in the order of T₅> T₄> T₃> T₂> T₁ at (p<0.05). Total CP intake followed a similar trend to that of total DM intake. The apparent digestibility of CP 72.4% for T5 was greater (p<0.05) as compared to T₁ and T₂. ADG was 50, 65, 70, 80 and 80 g/day for T₁, T₂, T₃, T₄ and T₅, respectively. Among the corn silage supplemented group ADG was lower (p<0.05) for T₂ than T₄ and T5. Hot carcass weight for T₁, T₂, T₃, T₄ and T₅ was 6.03, 7.00, 7.35, 7.97, 8.00 kg respectively and dressing percentage on slaughter BW basis was lower (p<0.05) for T₁ as compared to T₃, T₄ and T₅. Marginal rate of return (MRR) was lowest for T₅ (3.64%) and highest for T₂ (22.32%). So considering capital, T₂ with the highest MRR would be recommended as being economical. However, if capital is not the limiting factor, T₄ would be selected since it fetches better net return and is good in inducing better biological performance of animals in terms of ADG and carcass output.

Keywords: Body weight, Carcass weight, Corn silage, Sheep,Supplementation