Nutrients digestibility of rice milling waste (RMW) and soyabean meal residue (SMR) combination fed to Yankasa ram lambs in a fragile ecosystem Nigeria

This experiment was conducted at Bayero University Kano, to determine the Utilization and digestibility of Soyabean meal Residue (SMR) and Rice Milling Waste by Yankasa ram lambs. The 20 animals were fed with a complete diet containing graded levels of SMR and RMW at 0, (A)5 (B), 10 (C), 15(D) and 20% (E). The trial lasted for 21 days (14 days for adaptation and 7 days for collection of faecal samples). Harness bags were used for the collection of faecal samples, which was fitted in the last 7 days of adaptability. Results obtained revealed that DM digestibility (%) was significantly higher (P<0.05) for treatment E (78.69%) compared to the rest of the values obtained for treatments B (71.12%), C (70.61%) and D (70.29%) whose values did not differ significantly (P> 0.05) between each other. Value obtained for treatment E were comparable (P> 0.05) with treatment A. CP digestibility, value for treatment E (89.95%) was significantly higher (P<0.05) than those for treatments A (81.31%) and D (85.24%) accept the others (P> 0.05). Treatments B (84.36%) and C (86.37%) were similar (P> 0.05) but significantly higher than those for treatments A (81.31%) and D (85.24%) with the lowest value in treatment D. The EE digestibility values obtained were significantly higher (P<0.05) for treatments D (46.16%) and E (53.42%) compared to the rest of the values for treatments A (32.75%), B (41.58%) and C (38.22%) whose values did not differ significantly (P> 0.05) between each other. Similarly, values for treatments B, C and D were similar (P> 0.05). Ash digestibility values for treatments A (62.27%), B (56.59%) and C (58.27%) did not differ significantly (P> 0.05) between one another but were significantly lower (P<0.05) than those for treatments D (67.34%) and E (70.31%) whose values did not differ significantly between each other. Therefore, feeding combination of RMW and SMR to growing Yankasa ram lambs up to 20% inclusion improved digestibility and performance and reduce cost of production. It is recommended that more trial should be conducted with higher inclusion level and with different breeds of Sheep

Keywords:

Digestibility , Yankasa , Sheep , Rams , Lambs , Rice milling waste (RMW) , Soyabean meal residue (SMR)