NUTRITIONAL ASSESSMENT OF Pennisetum purpureum schumach AS INFLUENCED BY MANURE APPLICATION AND AGE AT HARVEST

ABSTRACT

The present study evaluated the acceptability of Pennisetum purpureum by WAD sheep as influenced by manure application. Eighteen West African Dwarf (WAD) rams aged 12 and 13 months old with weights ranging between 10-15kg were used for the study and they were tagged for easy identification. There were six (6) treatment groups of three animals each. The animals were dewormed and dipped to destroy both internal and external parasites before the experiment. The pens were disinfected before being used. Grasses were introduced on a cafeteria basis to the animals in eight different feed troughs with two troughs being empty to avoid border bias, thus each animal has free access to each of the diets in the trough. The positioning of the grasses was changed daily to prevent bias by the animals taking a particular part of the pen as the position for a particular type of silage. Grasses were harvested from the experimental site, the experiment was laid out in a split-plot design replicated three (3) times, constituting 0 ton/ha, 5 ton/ha and 10 ton/ha of swine manure. A known weight of grasses (1kg) was randomly offered to the animals in the feeding troughs. The feeding troughs were withdrawn after 30 minutes and the left-over were weighed and recorded to determine the intake per 30 minutes. This was repeated for five consecutive days. Percentage consumption, co-efficient preference and relative palatability index were in the order 5 t/ha > 10 t/ha > unfertilized. There were no significant differences (p >0.05) in the dry matter and ether extract content of the grasses with the manure application. However, differences in the crude protein and Ash content were significant (p