Performance of Yankasa Rams Fed Maize Stover as Basal Diet Supplemented with Different Compositions of Molasses-Urea Blocks

Abstract

Sixty (60) days of feeding trial was done to determine the effects of different formulations of molasses-urea blocks as supplements on performance of Yankasa rams fed maize stover as basal diet. 12 growing Yankasa rams aged between 9-12 months with average weight of were subjected to four (4) dietary treatments consisting of three (3) replicates per treatments. The four treatments were, T1 (Maize stover alone), T2 (molasses 36%, rice offal 43%, urea 5%, cement 7% salt 9% and basal diet)), T3 (molasses 26%, rice offal 43%, urea 15%, cement 9% salt 7% and basal diet) and T4 ( Molasses 40%, rice offal 39%, urea 10%, cement 4% salt 7% and basal diet ). The highest dry matter intake was recorded in T2 (780.67g/h/day) while the lowest was recorded in T4 (531mg/h/day) with significant (P<0.05) difference between treatments. T2 has the highest water intake value with 3.16 liters while the lowest was recorded in T1 2.64 liters. Better feed conversion ratio and highest daily weight gain was obtained among rams in T2 (17.32g/day) with significant difference (P<0.05) between treatments. The result shows higher concentration of Ammonia (mg/mol) in T4 (9.97mg/100ml), and the lowest was recorded in T1 (14.95mg/100ml). The study reveals that rams supplemented with T2(molasses 36%, rice offal 43%, urea 15%, cement 9% and salt 7%) generally gave a significantly (P<0.05) higher performance in terms of dry matter intake and live weight gain. The blood parameters falls within acceptable range, thus it is safe to feed the said blocks to Yankasa rams. The cost of feeding molasses – urea blocks as feed supplement to Yankasa rams as maintenance diet was observed to be relatively cheaper especially when grasses are not available.