Effects of Supplementing Sorghum Stover with Poultry Litter on Performance of Wadara Cattle

A study was carried out to investigate the effects of poultry litter supplementation on feed intake, Dry Matter Digestibility, (DMD) and Liveweight Change (LWC) of growing Wadara cattle. Fifteen Wadara cattle aged 18-24 months weighing 115 kg±9.9 were used in this study. Supplementation with poultry litter significantly (p<0.05) increased dry matter intake (DMI) 1.14, 1.92 and 2.66 kg day for T , T and T , 1 12 3 respectively. Digestibilities of DM, CP and OM were significantly (p<0.05) increased following supplementation, DM, CP, OM, but level of supplementation does not significantly (p<0.05) affect ADF and NDF. Animals fed on sorghum stover alone (T ) lost weight (-5.0 kg), While those on T and T gain weight 2.5 and 5.5 kg, 1 23 respectively. From the result of this study, supplementation with poultry litter improves the performance of Wadara cattle fed on sorghum stover basal diet. During the long dry season, the feed foreseen a complete randomized design and assigned to one of available for ruminant livestock feeding are mainly crop the treatments of level of supplementation as 0 kg (T ), residues. It is estimated that more than 40 percent of the 0.5 kg (T ) and 1.0 kg (T ) of poultry litter. The experiment dry season grazing time is spent by cattle on crop lasted for 90 days. residues (1). The main nutritional constituent of the use of Poultry litter was sun-dried for 3 days to minimize crop residues as animal livestock feed is slow rate of the level of microbes present, while the Sorghum stover digestion, due to high lignin and silica and relatively was obtained immediately after the grain harvest and poor nutrient content (2). chopped to 3-5 cm before feeding. Adegbola et al. (3) reported that increasing case of Prior to the commencement of the experiment, the conventional protein of plant origin such as cotton seed animals were routinely dewormed and sprayed against cake, groundnut cake and palm kernel meal has led to ecto-parasites. The supplement was offered once in the intensive use of unconventional feed resources non- morning and the basal diet (Sorghum stover) was offered protein nitrogen. Poultry litter has been used in immediately after the feeding of supplements and in experiments with growing heifers, lactating ewe and goats the evening. Water and mineral salt lick were offered ad and fattening calves to replace up to 30 percent of libitum throughout the experimental period. conventional concentrate feed (4, 5). All data collected during the experiment was Present experiment was undertaken to study the subjected to the Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA) effect of feeding sole poultry litter on nutrient intake and procedure and the means were statistically tested for utilization by Wadara cattle. significance by using methods described by SAS (6).