Effect of Millettia ferruginea (Birbra) foliage supplementation on feed intake, digestibility, body weight change and carcass characterstics of Washera sheep fed natural pasture grass hay basal diet

Twenty-four yearling male local Washera lambs with an average initial body weight of 18.14 ± 1.07 kg were used to assess the nutritional value of Millettia ferruginea. Experimental animals were grouped into six blocks of four animals, and each animal was randomly assigned to one of the four dietary treatment feeds. The treatments used were; Sole natural pasture grass hay (T1), and 150, 300, 450 g DM Millettia ferruginea leaf hay with ad libitum natural pasture grass hay assigned for (T2), (T3) and (T4), respectively. The feeding trial was carried out for 80 days followed by a 10 days of digestibility trial. Carcasses of each experimental animal were evaluated at the end of the digestibility experiment. Millettia ferruginea leaf hay had 224.6, 556.6, 360.7and 127.4 g/kg crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL), respectively. The average intakes of Millettia ferruginea leaf hay were 0, 133, 263 and 253 g/day for T1, T2, T3 and T4, in that order. The proportions of Millettia ferruginea leaf hay intake from the total dry matter (DM) were 0, 23.5, 44.1, and 43.3% for T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively. The total DM intake was not significant but showed a trend of T1 > T3 > T4 > T2. CP intake was higher for T3 and T4 with the least intake for T1. Final body weight measurement was higher for T3 and T1 but lower and negative for T2 and T4. Generally, body weight measurements were not consistent in the supplemented groups throughout the trial period. The weight of heart, spleen, and liver were higher for the supplemented groups compared to the sole grass hay. From the results of the current study, it can be concluded that, Millettia ferruginea had some limiting factors, which prevented the animal from efficiently utilize it. Therefore, this study revealed the indispensable role of animal feeding experiments with target animals to examine such impacts.