Table 3.
Mean daily dry matter and nutrient intake of growing Bonga lambs fed on Rhodes grass hay basal diet and supplemented with dried mulberry and Vernonia mixed leaves' meal substituting noug seed cake of concentrate mix at different levels.
| Intake (g/day) | Treatments | SEM | SL | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | T2 | T3 | T4 | T5 | |||
| Hay DM | 322.8ab | 325.9a | 323.3ab | 294.1b | 228.1c | 9.41 | ∗∗ |
| Supplement DM | 400.0 | 429.8 | 448.1 | 465.6 | 414.7 | — | — |
| TDMI | 722.8b | 755.7ab | 771.4a | 759.7ab | 642.8c | 13.34 | ∗∗ |
| TDMI (%BW) | 2.9 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 3.1 | 2.8 | 0.12 | ns |
| TDMI (g/kgW0.75/day) | 64.8ab | 68.2a | 70.6a | 69.5a | 60.9b | 2.24 | ∗ |
| Total nutrient intake | |||||||
| OM | 668.3a | 689.1a | 697.9a | 686.1a | 577.1b | 12.06 | ∗∗ |
| CP | 104.7ab | 106.8a | 105.8a | 100.9b | 88.2c | 1.48 | ∗∗∗ |
| EME (MJ/kg DM) | 10.0a | 10.2a | 9.9a | 10.2a | 8.3b | 0.25 | ∗∗∗ |
| Ash | 54.5c | 64.9b | 73.5a | 73.7a | 65.7b | 1.32 | ∗∗∗ |
| NDF | 335.5a | 350.1a | 359.3a | 347.3a | 288.1b | 8.05 | ∗∗ |
| ADF | 204.9b | 215.3ab | 222.6a | 216.4ab | 180.6c | 5.03 | ∗∗ |
| ADL | 35.1c | 48.3b | 45.8b | 52.8a | 48.2b | 0.92 | ∗∗∗ |
a,b,cMean values with different superscripts within a row are significantly different at ∗ = (P < 0.05), ∗∗ = (P < 0.01), and ∗∗∗ = (P < 0.001). DM: dry matter; OM: organic matter; CP: crude protein; EME: estimated metabolisable energy; NDF: neutral detergent fiber; ADF: acid detergent fiber; ADL: acid detergent lignin; TDMI: total dry matter intake; SEM: standard error of the mean; SL: significant level; ns: nonsignificant. T1 = Rhodes grass hay ad libitum + 100% concentrate mix; T2 = Rhodes grass hay ad libitum + 75% noug seed cake (NSC) and 25% dried mulberry and Vernonia mixed leaves' meal; T3 = Rhodes grass hay ad libitum + 50% NSC and 50% dried mulberry and Vernonia mixed leaves' meal; T4 = Rhodes grass hay ad libitum + 25% NSC and 75% dried mulberry and Vernonia mixed leaves' meal; T5 = Rhodes grass hay ad libitum + 100% dried mulberry and Vernonia mixed leaves' meal.