FORAGE DIGESTIBILITY AND PERFORMANCE OF YANKASA RAMS SUPPLEMENTED WITH FUZZY COTTON SEEDS

Abstract

The experiment was conducted at Federal University of Kashere, Gombe State, to evaluate the digestibility and performance of forages in sheep supplemented with fuzzy cotton seeds (FCS) called delinted cotton seed. Twelve (12) young Yankasa rams aged between 2 – 3 months were housed in the small ruminant section of Animal Science Departmental farm FUK under semi-intensive for nine (9) weeks in a three by four (3x4) factorial design in Complete Randomized Design. The animals were tagged based on the number of treatments and  replicates. They were allowed to graze on the available forages within the University farm in the morning and

supplemented in the evening with Fuzzy Cotton Seeds at (0g: T1, 200g: T2, 300g T3, and 400g: T4). Feed intake, live weight gain, and fecal output were recorded. Proximate analysis of the: experimental diets were carried out in the laboratory to determine the chemical composition. Statistical Analyses of (SAS) version 2022 was used to analyzed the data collected. The result indicated that there were significant differences (P≤0.05) in the average mean weight gain of the animals (6.2kg in T1 to 12.7kg in T3). Fuzzy Cotton Seeds showed a highest Dry Matter of 89.62% with lower free gossypol concentration of 0.6% at T3, while (Poliostigma retilacutum) had the lowest DryMatter of 85.22%, Crude Protein, Ether Extract, Crude Fibre, Acid Detergent Fibre, Neutral Detergent Fibre and Ash contents varied significantly (P=0.005) among the experimental treatments. The digestibility percentage showed that, T2 has the lowest digestibility of 66% while T4 has the highest digestibility of 80 %. It was concluded that Yankasa sheep supplemented with FCS at 400g (T3) responded positively in live weight gain consistently. The study therefore concluded and recommended the used of Fuzzy Cotton Seeds at 300g inclusion level for better perpormance in yankasa rams.