May 20, 2024 | Virtual Event
Ahmad Rufai Musa
Federal University, Nigeria
Ahmad Rufai Musa holds PhD in Animal Science from Bayero University in Kano, Nigeria. He was a visiting scholar at Universidad Politexhnica de Madrid, Spain. He is currently a academic staff at Federal University Gashua, Nigiera. He has over 20 publications with some in high impact journals. He reviewer and member of editorial team of some journals.
The experiment investigated the chemical composition, voluntary feed intake and performance of Yankasa Sheep fed varying levels of molasses-urea treated Typha Silage. A total of sixty four (64) Yankasa sheep (32 male and 32 female) with average initial body weight of 19 ± 1 kg were allotted to four dietary treatments in a completely randomized design with four replicates and four sheep per treatment. Fresh Typha harvested from Hadejia Valley Irrigation Project area, Jigawa were chopped to 2 - 3 cm long, compressed in polythene bags after addition of molasses (4.5%), urea (2.5%), packed and fermented for 60 days. Four experimental diets were formulated; T1 as control (0% Typha silage), T2 (10% Typha Silage), T3 (20% Typha Silage) and T4 (30% Typha silage). The experimental diets were fed twice daily at 3% DM of their body weight. The voluntary feed intake was signifcantly influenced (P <0.05%) by increasing level of Typha silage. Weight gain were significantly (P <0.05%) increased with increasing levels of Typha silage in the diets. T2 and T3 have higher weight gain (4.47 kg and 4.46 kg) respectively. Average daily weight gain (ADWG) were significantly (P <0.05%) influenced by inclusion of Typha silage in their diets with the highest value in T2 (106.4 g/day), while the control had the lowest with ADWG (97.14 g/day). Final body weight were significantly (P <0.05%) influenced by inclusion of Typha silage in their diets with the highest value in T2 (24.46 kg), while the control had the lowest (24.04 kg). It is recommended that 20% of molasses-urea treated Typha silage inclusion is the optimum inclusion level for improving the performance of Yankasa sheep and can therefore, be used to sustain animal performance during the dry season in a total mixed ration.