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Feeding sorghum stover to Ethiopian goats and sheep: Effect of amount offered on growth, intake and selection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2017

A A O Aboud ,
E Owen ,
J D Reed ,
A N Said  and
A B McAllan
A A O Aboud
Affiliation:
International Livestock Centre for Africa, P O Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
E Owen
Affiliation:
Department of Agriculture, University of Reading, P O Box 236, Reading RG6 2AT
J D Reed
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dept Meat & Animal Science, Madison, 53706-1284
A N Said
Affiliation:
International Livestock Centre for Africa, P O Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
A B McAllan
Affiliation:
Institute for Grassland and Environmental Research, Hurley, Maidenhead SL6 5LR
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Extract

Aboud et al (1990) found that intake and selection of sorghum stover (i.e. straw) by Ethiopian sheep increased as the ad libitum amounts offered (g/kg mass[M].day[d]) were increased from 25 to 50 and 75. The greater intakes resulted in improved growth rates. In view of the importance of goats in smallholder tropical-agriculture and the fact that goats are considered to be selective feeders, the present experiment compared the response of goats and sheep when offered increasing ad libitum quantities of sorghum stover.

Sorghum (bird-resistant variety Seredo) was grown at Melkassa in the Rift Valley. Fourteen days after hand-harversting of grain in November 1988, stover was hand-cut and transported to the ILCA Station at Debre-Zeit. The stover was chopped (tractor-mounted Alvan Blanch Maxi Chaff Cutter) and stored for one month before feeding. Twenty four Galla bucks (11-13 months old) and twenty four Ethiopian Lowand rams (14-16 months old) were used in the 2 x 3 factorial experiment with 8 replicates.

Type
Cereal Crop Utilisation
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Production (1972) , Volume 1991 , March 1991 , pp. 154
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Production 1991

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References

Aboud, A A O, Owen, E, Reed, J D and McAllan, A B 1990. Feeding sorghum stover to Ethiopian sheep: effect of stover variety and amount offered on growth, intake and selection. Animal Production 50 (3): 593 (Abstr.)Google Scholar