Kefyalew Gebeyew, Getachew Animut, Mengistu Urge and Teka Feyera
The study was conducted using 24 yearling intact Hararghe highland male sheep with mean initial body weight (BW) of 16.73 ± 2.47 kg (Mean ± SD), with the objectives to evaluate the effect of supplementation of dried tomato pomace, and concentrate feed on live weight gain, carcass characteristics and economic feasibility of the feeding regime of sheep fed a basal diet of natural pasture hay. The experiment consisted 90 days feeding and followed by evaluation of carcass parameters at the end. The animals were fed concentrate at a rate of 300 gm per day on dry matter basis. The experimental sheep were blocked into 6 blocks of 4 animals based on their initial BW and randomly assigned to one of the four treatments within a block. Four dietary treatments used in the experiment were ad libitum feeding of hay alone (T1), ad libitum feeding of hay supplemented with 359.61 g dried tomato pomace (DTP) (T2), ad libitum feeding of hay supplemented with 300 g concentrate mix (CM=33% Noug seed cake (NSC) + 67% Wheat Bran (WB); T3), and ad libitum feeding of hay with 1:1 ratio mixture of DTP and concentrate mix (CM=33% Noug seed cake (NSC) + 67% Wheat Bran (WB);T4). Average daily gain (ADG) was lowest for T1 (30 g/day), and among the supplemented treatments values for T4 (65 g/day) was numerically higher than that for T3 (58 g/day) and T2 (57 g/day). Feed conversion efficiency showed a similar trend to Average daily gain (ADG). Hot carcass weight was 6.5, 8.5, 8.5 and 8.5 kg for T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively and was lower for T1 than the other three treatments. Rib eye muscle area (REA) was 6.1, 7.3, 8.1 and 8.2 cm2 (SEM=0.446)) for T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively was significantly lower (p < 0.05) in T1. There was a negative net return for T1. The net return from the supplemented treatments was 62.3, 5.8, and 45.2 ETB, and the corresponding marginal rate of return was 2.49, 0.54, and 1.44 % for T2, T3 and T4, respectively. Integrating this feed resource into the feeding system of sheep in areas of availability will not only solve the existing critical feed shortage, but also avoid the problem of environmental pollution. In this study, supplementation of dried tomato pomace and concentrate feed positively affected the measured growth and carcass characteristics. Therefore, the results of this study suggested that dried tomato pomace can totally replace concentrate mixture used in the present study as a supplement to sheep fed a basal diet of natural pasture hay with better economic return.
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