DIETARY INFLUENCE OF CASSIA SIEBERIANA (MALGA) PODS MEAL ON THE GROWTH AND DIGESTIBILITY OF ‘YANKASA SHEEP’ IN SEMI-ARID ENVIRONMENT

A study was conducted at Argungu town in Kebbi State, North-Western Nigeria, to assess the nutritional composition and utilization of Malga (Cassia sieberiana) pods in the diets of 'Yankasa sheep.A feeding trial, nutrients digestibility and carcass analysis were carried out to evaluate the growth performance of 'Yankasa rams fed graded levels of Malga pods meal, replacing cotton seed cake (CSC) at 0, 5, 10 and 15% inclusion rates in semi-arid climatic zone, using 20 growing 'Yankasa rams allocated to four treatments, replicated five times in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD).The data collected, on feed intake, liveweight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR), nutrients intake, dry matter intake (DMI), nitrogen utilization, digestibility and carcass characteristics, were subjected to analysis of variance using SPSS (Version 20), and Least Significant Difference (LSD) was used for means separation at 5% level of significance.The results show that animals on 10% Malga pods meal diet were better compared to rams on other treatments in terms of dry matter intake, liveweight gain, nutrients digestibility, dressing %, and cost of feed per kg liveweight gain.It was concluded that Malga (Cassia sieberiana) pods meal could be used as a feed resource, replacing cotton seed cake (CSC) and could be included in the diets of sheep up to 10% level without detrimental effect on the growth performance.The pods could serve as cheaper source of protein, energy, as well as antioxidant micronutrient supplements to ruminant animals.It was recommended that more trials be carried out with different species of ruminants in order to further ascertain the true feeding value of Malga (Cassia sieberiana) pods meal on growth performance of ruminants in semi-arid environments.