Evaluation of Concentrate Options on Feed Intake, Body Weight Gain and Carcass Yield of Fattened Rams at Southern Zone of Tigray, Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, sheep and goats represent an important component of the farming system by providing about 12% of the value of livestock products consumed and 48% of the cash income generated at the farm level. Since more than 70% of the total cost of any livestock farm is allocated on animal feed, formulating new, cheap and quality animal ration was the baseline to design this experimental research. This was also verified through evaluation of the animal fed on concentrate ration regarding daily ration intake, daily body weight gain, and carcass yield of the rams in the study area. To carry out the experiment, 20 yearling intact rams in four treatment groups with 5 replications were employed. Treatment 1: concentrate feed (Wheat bran 49%, Nuge seed cake 23.5%, Maize 25%, Salt 0.5% Lime, 2%); Treatment 2: concentrate feed ( Wheat bran 92.6%, Nuge seed cake 4% , Salt 0.6% Lime, 2.8%); Treatment 3: concentrate feed ( Wheat bran 48%, Nuge seed cake 48%, Salt 0.6% Lime, 3.4%); Treatment 4: concentrate feed (Maize grain 20%, Wheat bran 45% Nuge seed cake 35%). Wheat straw was freely accessible to all the experimental rams. Analysis of variance showed that all except wheat straw (CP 2.3%) treatment diets satisfied the daily maintenance as well as production requirement of the experimental sheep. Rams fed on ration four had higher daily intake (642.1 gram/day) compared to the other feed treatments. From all the diets, Treatment 3 had higher average body weight gain (78.2 g), feed conversion ratio (13.9 g, hot carcass weight, net income (93.2 birr/head) and feed conversion efficiency (12.4 g) compared to other treatments. Therefore, it can be concluded that Treatment 3 had biological superiority and economically advantageous than the other treatment groups. Based on the findings of this research, we strongly recommend researchers to conduct similar experiments in different areas to make a general conclusion.