Identification and Nutritional Value Assessment of Major Browse Species as Livestock Feed in Kurfa Chele District of East Hararghe Zone, Ethiopia

A study was conducted in Kurfa Chele District of East Hararghe Zone with the objective of identifying major browse species as livestock feed and evaluate their herbage biomass yield, chemical composition and IVDMD in wet and dry season. Six rural Kebeles were purposively selected for the study. A total of 90 farmers, 15 from each rural Kebeles were randomly selected as respondents. Semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Survey data were analyzed by SPSS software, while data obtained from laboratory were analyzed by the General Linear Model (GLM) of SAS software. Major cereal crops grown in the study area includes sorghum, maize, wheat, barley and beans. Vegetables like onion and pepper, and fruits like banana and papaya were grown in limited amounts in some parts of the study area. Cash crops like Khat (Catha edulis) and coffee are grown as cash crop. Livestock species including cattle, goat, sheep and donkey were kept for the purposes of draught power, source of cash income and to provide manure. Average livestock holding per household were cattle 4.66±0.016, goat 5.03±0.0153, sheep 2.80±0.041, and donkey 1.17±0.035. Shortage of feed (86.7%) especially during dry season was the major constraint of livestock production followed by health problem (74.6%), poor breed (60.0%) and scarcity of water (52.4%). Livestock feed resource includes natural pasture, crop residue, crop aftermath, sorghum and maize seedling, browse fodder and agro-industrial byproduct. Thirteen indigenous browse species used as livestock feed resource were identified. The top 5 were selected for evaluation of potential herbage biomass yield, analysis of chemical composition and IVDMD. The herbage biomass yield ranged from 1388 Kg DM/Plant to 102 Kg DM/Plant and which was significantly different (P