Effect of supplementing urea-treated barley straw with lucerne or vetch hays on feed intake, digestibility and growth of Arsi Bale Sheep

The study was conducted at Sinana Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopia to assess the supplementation of graded levels of vetch (Vicia dasycarpa `lana') and lucerne (Medicago sativa,' Hunter river') hay on feed intake, digestibility and body weight (BW) change of Arsi-Bale sheep fed urea treated barley straw (UTBS). A 7 day- digestibility and a 90 day- feed intake trials were conducted using 28 and 35 sheep, respectively. The experimental design was a randomized complete block design with seven dietary treatments that consisted of feeding UTBS (T1) as the control treatment, UTBS plus 150, 250 and 350 g dry matter (DM) per day of vetch for T2, T3, T4, respectively and UTBS plus 150, 250 and 350 g DM per day of lucerne for T5, T6 and T7, respectively. Intake of UTBS was not affected (P > 0.05) by inclusion of lucerne hay at 25-35% of daily DM intake. The supplements increased daily intake of total DM, organic matter (OM), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and metabolizable energy (ME) (P < 0.001) as well as apparent digestibility of DM, OM (P < 0.001), NDF (P < 0.01), ADF, crude protein (CP) (P < 0.05) and daily BW gain (P < 0.001). Supplementation with lucerne than vetch hay promoted higher (P < 0.001) CP and ME intakes and daily BW gain. Feeding with the UTBS without supplementation was enough to meet the maintenance requirements of the sheep and allow small BW gain. The results of the study showed that urea treatment of barley straw in conjunction with supplementation of lucerne or vetch hay could serve as a useful strategy in improving smallholder sheep production in the tropics.