EFFECT OF FOUR VARIETIES OF VETCH HAY SUPPLEMENTATION ON FEED INTAKE, DIGESTIBILITY, BODY WEIGHT CHANGE AND CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF ARSI-BALE SHEEP FED A BASAL DIET OF FODDER OAT HAY

Abstract

Different species and varieties of fodder oats and vetches were identified to successfully adapt and perform in the high lands of Bale. However, their feeding value was not well evaluated. Therefore, animal experiment was conducted using thirty five yearling intact male Arsi-Bale sheep with initial body weight of 21.4±0.6 Kg (Mean± SD) with the objective of investigating the varietal differences of vetch hay on feed intake, digestibility, body weight change and carcass characteristics of Arsi-Bale sheep and to evaluate the potentials of fodder oat and vetch hay based feeding for livestock. The sheep were blocked into seven blocks of five animals based on their initial body weight and animals within each block were randomly assigned to one of the five treatment diets. The treatment diets were; ad libitum fodder oat hay alone (T1) and ad libitum fodder oat hay supplemented with 350g DM hay of four vetch varieties, namely; Gebisa, Lalisa, Abdeta and Vicia sativa for T2, T3, T4 and T5, respectively. After the 21 days of quarantine period and 15 days of acclimatization to the experimental diets and pens, feeding and digestibility trials were conducted for 90 and 7 days, respectively with evaluation of carcass parameters at the end. The crude protein (CP) contents of fodder oat, Gebisa, Lalisa, Abdeta and V.sativa hay were 8.9, 21.1, 19.5, 18.0 and 18.4%, respectively, whereas, neutral detergent fiber (NDF) contents were 53.7, 36.5, 48.3, 39.2 and 42.1%, respectively. Total DM intake (951.0, 1133.1, 1015.9, 1027.1 and 1082.8 g/day; SEM=17.4), for T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5, respectively was significantly higher (P<0.05) for T2 as compared to T1, T3 and T4. Crude protein (CP) intake (99.9, 154.5, 136.8, 133.4 and 139.9 g/day; SEM=3.38) for T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5, respectively, was significantly highest (P<0.001) for T2 than all other treatments, while it was significantly lowest (P<0.001) for T1 and similar (P>0.05) for T3, T4 and T5. The DM digestibility ranged from 58.4-65.2% and it was significantly highest (P<0.001) for T2 as compared to all other treatments and similar (P>0.05) for T3, T4 and T5. Average daily body weight gain (90.3, 152.5, 113.7, 120.6 and 130.3 g/day; SEM=4.11) and hot carcass weight (12.4, 15.9, 13.6, 14.1 and 14.4 Kg; SEM=0.23) for T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5, respectively were significantly highest (P<0.001) for T2 as compared to all other treatments, while they were significantly lowest (P<0.001) for T1. Hot carcass weight (HCW) was similar (P>0.05) for T3, T4 and T5. The proportion of muscle (61.5-63.9%) and fat (16.1-19.8%) were not significantly different (P>0.05) among treatments, while proportion of bone (18.5-21.0%) was significantly higher (P<0.01) for T1 as compared to T2, T3 and T4. In conclusion, supplementation of Gebisa vetch variety (T2) induced highest growth performance and carcass characteristics of sheep than all other treatments and is therefore, recommended. However, all treatments used in this study induced favorable growth performance and carcass characteristics and thus can be employed in feeding systems in the order of T2>T5>T4>T3>T1 as available. Moreover, based on the results of the current study it was concluded that fodder oat and vetch hay based feeding is explicitly high potential feeding strategy and effort should be made to introduce and scale up the production of these forages in the farming system.