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COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF BAMBARA NUT WASTE AND DRY BREWERS SPENT GRAIN AS DRY SEASON FEED SUPPLEMENTS FOR WEST AFRICAN DWARF SHEEP

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Abstract

Two feeding trials were conducted to investigate the growth and physiological response of sheep fed forage with and without supplementary bambara nut waste or brewers spent grain. First trial (Experiment I) assesed the effects of dry season supplementation of bambara nut waste or dry brewers spent grain on growth performance and blood metabolites (blood plasma ammonia and blood plasma urea) of West African dwarf sheep, while the Experiment 2 investigated the digestibility coefficients of bambara nut waste and dry brewers spent grain. In experiment 1, nine sheep (six females and three males) were randomly divided into three treatment groups at three sheep per treatment with one sheep serving as a replicate. The first group (control) was allowed to graze only. They were herded out at 08:00hours and brought back at 5:00hours. The second and third groups were given 500g of dry brewers spent grain or bambara nut waste at 8;00hours and at 11:00 hours,, thereafter they grazed for the rest of the day.