Feed utilization, digestibility and carcass parameters of Tigray highland sheep fed wheat straw supplemented with mixtures of wheat bran and cotton seed cake, in Tigray, Ethiopia Michael Yirdaw and Yaynshet Tesfay Aksum University, Department of Animal Production and Technology, Aksum-Ethiopia
[email protected] Mekelle University Department of Animal Production and Technology, Mekelle-Ethiopia yaynshet t @yahoo.com Abstract The experiment was carried out at Mekelle University livestock farm, Tigray, Ethiopia. Twenty four male yearling Highland sheep with an average live weight of 162.4kg (mean standard deviation) were used in the experiment. The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of concentrate supplementation with mixtures of wheat bran (75%) and cotton seed cake (25%) on performance of highland sheep. The experimental design was a randomized complete Block design (RCBD) with four treatments and six replications. The experiment was carried out for 90 days after 21 days of feed adaptation period. At the end of the feeding trial digestibility trial was carried out for seven consecutive days followed by evaluation of carcass parameters. There was significantly higher (P
