Supplementation with forage legumes could be a sustainable way of improving the feeding value of poor quality crop residues especially to the resource poor African smallholders. Thus, the potential of Desmodium intortum, Macrotyloma axillare and Stylosanthes guianensis in improving the utilization of a basal diet of maize stover by sheep was assessed in a feeding trial. Maize stover used in this experiment was high in lignocellulosic cell-wall constituents and very low in CP. S. guianensis hay contained higher CP and lower NDF, ADF, and lignin contents than D. intortum and M. axillare hays. According to animal responses, under the conditions of this experiment, S. guianensis was superior to the other two legumes in improving the feeding value to sheep of maize stover based diets. M. axillare was found to be inferior. In general, 250 g of S. guianensis and 350 g of D. intortum hays per day per sheep (18.2 kg Lwt +/- 1.2) were found to be optimum levels of supplementation to maize stover. At these levels of supplementation modest levels of bodyweight gain were achieved. It is suggested that the two legumes are useful to bridge the gap in feed supply in areas where livestock depend on poor quality crop residues during the dry season.
