EVALUATION OF UREA AND LIME TREATED GROUNDNUT SHELLS IN MIXED RATIONS ON INTAKE AND DIGESTIBILITY OF YANKASA RAMS

The study was carried out to evaluate the effect of feeding groundnut shell (GNS) treated with urea, lime and urea-lime in total mixed ration on intake and digestibility using yearling Yankasa rams. The experimental diets were composed of untreated groundnut shell (UTGNS), urea treated groundnut shell (UGNS), lime treated groundnut shell (LGNS) and urea-lime treated groundnut shell (ULGNS) denoted as T 1 , T 2 , T 3 , and T 4 , respectively which were   mixed with maize offal, cotton seedcake, bone meal and salt. The GNS were treated with 5% urea, 5% lime and 5% (2.5% urea and 2.5% lime mixed together) ensiled in Perdue Improved Cowpea Storage bags for a period of 3 weeks. The diets were formulated to contain 14% crude protein and were fed to 4 yearling Yankasa rams in a 4×4 Latin square arrangement with four periods of 15 days each. The animals were kept in individual metabolism cages. Feed was offered without restriction and water was supplied ad libitum . The results revealed significant improvements in all the parameters measured. There was a considerable improvement in the chemical composition of the treated GNS after treatment with urea and lime. Voluntary intake increased significantly (P<0.05) in rams fed UTGNS and ULGNS based diets but was lower in the UGNS group.  There was a significant (P<0.05) increase in dry matter digestibility, crude protein digestibility, and acid detergent fibre with 1024.20g/d, 191.10g/d and 327.30g/d respectively in animals fed the ULGNS based diet. The results suggests that treatment with 2.5% urea and 2.5% lime on GNS in total mixed ration increased the DM intake by 5.7g/day, DMD by 7.4% and CP digestibility by 4.0% in Yankasa rams. It was therefore concluded that ULGNS in mixed ration could improve voluntary intake and digestibility in Yankasa rams.