Fattening Performance of White Fulani Cattle Fed Different Energy Sources

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to compare the utilisation of maize offal, wheat offal, rice offal and sorghum panicle as energy sources in the diets of fattening beef cattle. Twenty White Fulani bulls with an average weight of 225kg were randomly allotted to four isonitrogenous diets formulated with maize offal, wheat offal, rice offal and sorghum panicle as the energy sources. Signal grass (Bracharia decumbens) hay was offered as the basal diet. A metabolism trial was conducted at the end of the feeding trial using 16 bulls to assess the effect of the diets on nutrient digestibility. The result showed that the energy content of the diets ranged from 2500.72 – 2677.46kcal/kg DM. Dry matter intake (DMI) was significantly higher (8.50kg/day) (P<0.05) in the wheat offal based diet and average daily gain (ADG) were significantly (P<0.05) higher in maize offal and wheat offal based diets (0.65 and 0.66kg/day) respectively. The utilization of maize and wheat offals based diets were significantly (P<0.05) higher compared to those of rice offal and sorghum panicle based diets. Wheat offal and maize offal based diets had higher utilization and similar feed to gain ratio. Rice offal had the least feed to gain ratio (22.40) and the highest feed cost/kg gain (683.10/kg gain) The DM digestibility of all the by-products based diets ranged from 52.33 % in the rice offal based diet to 67. 48 % in the maize offal based diet. There was positive nitrogen balance across all treatment. It was concluded that maize offal and wheat offal based concentrates were better utilized by cattle compared to rice offal and sorghum panicle based concentrates in fattening of cattle.

Keywords: Agricultural-by products, fattening, White Fulani.