Effect of Different Levels of Dried Sugar Cane Tops Inclusion on the Performance of Washera Sheep Fed Basal Diet of Grass Hay, Ethiopia

<p>Background: Ruminants feed largely on crop resides as their basal diet. Despite their vast use as a livestock feed, crop residues are naturally of low quality and do not fulfill the nutrient requirement of animals. Thus, the deficit in the basal feed of quantity can be covered with sugar cane tops that are potential feed for better performance of animals. This study aimed with to evaluate the effect of different level of Dried Sugar Can tops inclusion on carcass characteristics and Economic Feasibility of Washera sheep fed a basal diet of grass hay. Methodology: A study was conducted at Bure Agricultural Technical Vocational Educational Training (ATVET) College using twenty yearling Washera sheep with initial body weight (BW) of 18.15 ± 1.85 (mean ± SD). The experimental design was randomized complete block design, and sheep were blocked into five blocks of four animals based on their initial BW and randomly assigned to one of the treatments within a block. Treatments were hay ad libitum+100 g/head/d CM for T1 and an additional 120 g, 240 g and 360 g SCT per head/day on dry matter basis for T2, T3 and T4, respectively. The experiment consisted 90 days of Growth trials followed by evaluation of carcass components at the end. Result: Average Daily Gain (ADG) was 21, 46, 56 and 75 g/d for T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively and was highest for T4 and lowest for T1. Hot carcass weight (HCW) was 6.4, 8.2, 8.7 and 9.1 kg for T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively and was greater for T4 but similar among the other three treatments. Dressing percentage on slaughter or empty body weight basis also took a similar trend like that of HCW. Net return was 63.01, 105.7, and 204.73 Birr for T2, T3 and T4, respectively. Conclusion: The supplementation has positive impact on the growth and carcass characteristic. Therefore, it was concluded that sugar cane tops could be used as part of a diet for sheep to improve animal performance where it is available.</p&gt