Influence of feeding sheep on oilseed cake following the consumption of tanniferous feeds

This study evaluated the synergism between oilseed (50:50 noug (Guizotia abyssinica) and groundnut) cake (OSC) and tanniferous feeds (pods of Acacia albida and Sesbania sesban leaves) in two experiments. S. sesban has a lower content of soluble phenolics than A. albida pods (196 vs. 270 g/kg). Dietary treatments during trial 1 comprised teff (Eragrotis tef) straw given ad libitum supplemented per day with the following: 168 g of OSC alone (T1), or 100 g of OSC plus 135 g of sesbania leaves (T2) or 100 g of OSC plus either 50 (T3), 100 (T4) or 200 g (T5) of acacia pods. During trial 2 dietary treatments comprised T1, T2, T5 and an additional treatment comprised 100 g sesbania leaves plus 200 g pods which were fed to sheep as a mixture. One strategy (sequence) was to give the OSC following complete consumption of either sesbania leaves or acacia pods while the other strategy (mixture) was to mix OSC with either of these forages before feeding. The sequence strategy was used in trial 1 while both strategies were used in trial 2. Each expeiment used 30 sheep in a RCB design. During trial one incremental intake of pods resulted to linear increases (P0.05) and substantial using the sequence strategy (23 g/day; P0.05) for the sesbania and large (15 g/day; P