ABSTRACTThe study aimed at evaluating the effects of inclusion levels and feeding frequencies of shea nut cake on the growth performance, nutrient digestibility, nitrogen balance, haematological, blood serum and economics of Yankasa rams production. Twenty-four rams averaging 16.4kg were randomly assigned to four treatment diets containing 0, 2.5, 5 and 7.5% inclusion of shea nut cake andtwo feeding frequencies, daily and skip-a-day. The result shows that hay intake, total feed intake, final weight, total weight gain and ADG were significantly (P<0.05) affected by the inclusion levels with 7.5% inclusion recording the highest values (292.07g/day, 588.70g/day, 21.02kg, 4.09kg and 51.11g respectively). Feeding frequency affected supplement intake, hay and total feed intake but did not affect on final weight, total weight gain and average daily gain. Animals on daily feeding recorded higher supplement intake (385.93 g/day) and total feed intake (574.90 g/day). Dry Matter digestibility for 7.5% inclusion was higher than the other inclusion levels with a value of 62.84%. The DM digestibility was found to progressively increase as the inclusion increased from 0% to 7.5% and this was observed to follow the same pattern with OM, CP, NFE, and ADF digestibilities. CP and EE digestibilities were affected by feeding frequency. Daily feeding (68.02%) was higher than skip-a-day feeding (58.27%) in CP and EE (71.27% versus 55.39%) digestibility. The digestibility parameters were all affected by the interaction. The percentage of nitrogen retained progressively increased as the inclusion increased from 0% to 7.5%. The daily feeding was higher than the skip-a-day feeding for nitrogen intake, nitrogen retained and percentage of nitrogen retained. All the serum parameters were affected by the inclusion levels. Serum creatinine progressively decreased as the inclusion increased from 0% (2.05mg/dl) to 7.5% (1.36mg/dl). The serum metabolites were not affected by the feeding frequencies. All the haematological parameters were affected by the inclusion levels. The WBC and Neutrophils both progressively decreased as the inclusion increased from 0-7.5% while Lymphocytes increased with increase of inclusion levels. The 0% inclusion was higher for WBC (6.65 (109/uL)), Neutrophils (54.00%), Haemoglobin (7.5g/dl), MCH (13.50pg) and MCHC (26.90g/dl) while the 7.5% inclusion was higher for Lymphocytes (63.50%), Monocytes (6.50%) and PCV (31.00%). The WBC count for the daily feeding (3.78 (109/uL)) was significantly lower than the skip-a-day feeding (6.98 (109/uL)) while the other haematological parameters were not affected by the feeding frequencies. The interaction affected the serum metabolites and the haematological parameters. The Cost of concentrate reduced as the inclusion increased from 0% to 7.5% from N51.25 to N48.20. The cost per gain of N542.48 at 7.5% was significantly (P < 0.05) lower than the cost per gain at the other inclusion levels. The feeding frequencies had no impacts on the economics of feeding Yankasa rams. It can be concluded that shea nut cake could be included in concentrate diets up to 7.5% and fed to rams without any negative impact on the growth of rams, and that rams can be supplemented with concentrate diets once in two days without a resultant loss in weight of the animals.
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