UTILIZATION OF ACHA HAY (GIGISTARIA EXILIS) WITH LABLAB HAY (LABLAB PURPUREUS) AS SUPPLEMENT FOR YANKASA RAMS IN ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA

The study was conducted to evaluate the feeding value of acha hay and lablab hay based diets to Yankasa rams. Twenty Yankasa rams aged between 6 to 9 months with average live-weight of 10 to 12kg were subjected to five treatment diets each consisting of four replicates in complete randomized design (CRD). The five treatment diets are T1 (Sole acha hay), T2 (Acha hay +100g lablab hay), T3 (Acha hay +200g lablab hay), T4 (Acha hay +300g lablab hay) and T5 (Acha hay +400g lablab hay). Feed intake was significantly different (P<0.05) with the highest intake recorded in T5 and least in T1. Feed conversion ratio was also significantly different (P<0.05), but live-weight gain was not significantly different (P>0.05), although it increases with supplementation level. Nutrients digestibility was not significantly different (P>0.05) but improves with level of supplement. The Acha hay and lablab hay being available during period of scarcity could improve the performances of the animals.


INTRODUCTION
Small ruminants especially sheep and goats in the humid tropical regions of Africa roam around and eat natural pastures and kitchen wastes which contain low crude protein, high fibre and lignin (Tchinda et al., 1993 andAregheore, 2000). The low nutritional plane greatly hampers the productivity of these animals especially during the dry season when the crude protein content of these feedstuffs could be as low as 2% (Sarwatt et al., 2004). This situation has resulted to slow growth rate, loss of body weight, low birth weight and increased susceptibility to disease attack and death. A balance of energy and protein with essential nutrients is required to alleviate or improve the productivity of these small ruminants (Mendietta-Araica et al., 2011).
Cereal crop residues which are the only alternative source of feed during the dry season are very low in nitrogen and high in lignocellulosic compound content of over 35% which is low in fermentable energy but high potassium and available vitamins with low phosphorus (Ehoche, 2002). The situation has led to decreased voluntary feed intake and digestibility (Adebola, 2002).
Acha is one of the most important grain crops produced in Northern Nigeria in abundance during the dry season especially in Plateau State. It is harvested after grain maturity to be used as food by man, while the straw is left wasted on the farms which could be used as livestock feed although it has high fibre which will require supplementation as way of improving the utilization and productivity of ruminant livestock (Aregheore et al., 2004).
The supplementation of untreated stover or grass hay with leguminous forages has beneficial effects to ruminant animals as it increases metabolizable energy and nitrogen intake, improve palatability, increased available minerals and vitamins, better rumen function and laxative influence on the alimentary system (Ojo et al., 2001).
Therefore, this study is meant to measure the response of yankasa rams fed acha hay with lablab hay as supplement in Adamawa, Nigeria.

Site of Study
The study was conducted at the Small Unit of Teaching and Research Farm of the Department of Animal Science and Range Management, Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola, Adamawa State. Yola is located in the North Eastern part of Nigeria. It is situated within the Savannah region and lies between latitude 7 0 and 11 0 North and longitude 11 0 and 14 0 East and altitude of about 185.9m above sea level. Yola has a tropical climate marked by rainy and dry seasons. Maximum temperature can reach 40 0 c particularly in April, while minimum temperature can be as low as 18 0 c with annual rainfall of less than 1000mm (Adebayo and Tukur, 1999).

Experimental Animals and Management
Twenty Yankasa rams aged between 6 to11 months with an average weight of 10 to 12kg were purchased at Ngurore sheep and goats market of Adamawa State. They were adapted for a period of fourteen days. Thereafter, they were dewormed with Albendazole and dipped in acaricides solution against ecto-parasites.

Experimental Diets and Design
Acha hay was fed ad libitum as basal diet and lablab hay as supplement with five treatments. The twenty yankasa rams were allotted to the five treatment diets and replicated four times in complete randomised design (CRD). The treatment combinations are shown below: Treatment 1: (Sole acha hay) Treatment 2: (Acha hay +100g lablab hay) Treatment 3: (Acha hay +200g lablab hay) Treatment 4: (Acha hay +300g lablab hay) Treatment 5: (Acha hay +400g lablab hay).

Feeding Trial
Feeds were offered twice daily in the morning and evening (8.00am and 4.00pm), while salt lick and water were provided ad libitum. The left over of feed were weighed every morning before the next feeding. The growth performance of the rams was determined by weighing them with scale on weekly basis.

Digestibility Study
The digestibility study was conducted immediately after feeding trial. Fifteen Yankasa rams were selected from all the treatments and taken to the metabolic crates for the digestibility study. They were allocated to the same treatment diets used in the feeding trial and adapted for seven days before the collection of the faeces. The collection lasted for five days. Feed offered and refusals were weighed daily. Total faecal output was measured daily using a weighing scale and 10% sub-sample were dried and stored for dry matter determination before chemical analysis.

Chemical Analysis
Proximate analysis of the feeds and faecal samples were determined by the standard method according to A.O.A.C (2004). Acid detergent fibre and Neutral detergent fibre according to Goering and Van Soest (1990).

Statistical Analysis
Data collected from the study were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) of a CRD design and least significant difference (F-LSD) test was used to separate significantly different treatment means (Steel and Torries, 1980). Table 1 shows the chemical composition of the experimental diets fed to Yankasa rams. The acha hay contains 93.45%DM, 5.56%CP, 0.56%EE, 6.50%Ash, 56.81%NFE, 50.40%ADF and 60.10%NDF, while the lablab hay contains 95.00%DM, 11.50%CP, 1. 89%EE,9.42%Ash,42.39%NFE,31.56%ADF and 51.48%NDF respectively. The performance characteristics of yankasa rams fed acha hay and lablab hay are shown in Table 2. The Yankasa rams placed on all the dietary treatments 1 to 5 ranged from 20.54 to 30.82kg. There was significant difference (P<0.05) in feed intake of Yankasa rams. The highest value of 30.82kg was obtained among rams fed Acha hay with 400g lablab hay, while the least intake of 20.54kg was recorded among rams fed acha hay only (T1). The feed conversion ratio was significantly different (P<0.05) across the treatment groups which improves with the level of supplementation. Weight gain was not significant (P>0.05) showing that the treatment diets showed no influence, but numerically the highest value of 3.83Kg was obtained among the group fed acha hay with 400g lablab hay (T5) and the least value of 2.77Kg was recorded among yankasa rams fed acha hay alone (T1).

DISCUSSION
The crude protein content of acha hay (5.56%) in this study was similar to 5.36% reported by Orskov et al. (1980) but lower than 6.75% reported by Finangwai et al. (2012) and 6.28% by Akinfemi (2012) in a similar study with acha straw, while 7.20% was reported by Babayemi et al. (2006) in a study with cenhrus ciliaris. Crude protein of lablab (11.50%) was lower than 14.06% reported by Babayemi et al. (2006) but similar to 10.50% reported by Mbahi et al. (2006). The ether extract content of acha hay (0.56%) was higher than 0.11% reported by Finangwai, 2012, but lower than 2.02% reported by Akinfemi, 2012. Babayemi et al. (2006 in a similar study reported a higher value of 3.07% with panicum maximum. The lablab had 1.89% ether extract which is higher than 1.42% reported by Mbahi et al. (2006), while Babayemi et al. (2006 reported higher value of 2.83%. Ash content of acha hay (6.50%) was similar to 5.96% and 6.30% reported by Akinfemi (2012) and Finangwai et al., 2012, while 6.00% was reported for biscuits wastes in a similar study by Enjoi louna et al., 2011. The ash content of lablab hay was 9.42% which agree with 9.47% reported by Babayemi et al. (2006), but lower than 11.97% reported by Mbahi et al. (2006). The ADF and NDF in the study were lower than 54.26% and 68.15% reported by Akinfemi et al., 2012for acha hay, while Babayemi et al. (2006 and Sath et al. (2012) in a similar study with panicum maximum and rice straw reported 36.95% and 50.3% ADF and 73.39% and 74.5% NDF. The ADF (31.56%) and NDF (51.48%) content of lablab were comparable with ADF (32.57%) and NDF (51.44%) reported by Babayemi et al. (2006), while Mbahi et al. (2006) reported higher values of ADF (34.38%) and NDF (68.80%) respectively. There was higher feed intake with the diets supplemented with lablab hay than the control diets which could be as the result of the lablab hay inclusion which made the feed more palatable. Similar findings were reported by Umuna et al. (1995), Babayemi et al (2006, Adegun and Aye (2013) who stated that supplementation increases intake of animals. Feleke et al. (2011) reported comparable results that intake of DM, OM and CP increased with increasing levels of supplements which could be responsible for the increased intake of the animals in this study. Feed conversion ratio agrees with the earlier reports by Aye (2007) and Yousouf et al. (2007) that supplementation improves feed conversion ratio of sheep. The live-weight gain of rams increases with levels of supplement which is as a result of DM and CP intake and utilization. The live-weght changes in this study agrees with the earlier report by Sukkasem et al. (2002) and Babayemi et al. (2006), but contrary to the results reported by Ndemanisho et al. (2007) that growth rates did not differ with goats fed different sources of supplements. The dry matter digestibility values were fairly high in all the treatments which could be due to the lablab hay inclusion. A similar finding was reported by Mupanga et al. (2000), kamaludeen (2013) and Aye (2007) that activity of ruminal microbes is improved by nitrogen supplementation of diets leading to high digestibility.

CONCLUSION
The lablab hay being a legume that has high crude protein content when used as supplement to Acha hay based diet could improve the dry matter intake, nutrients digestibility and weight gain of rams. Acha is a cereal crop that is normally produced during the dry season on irrigation and the lablab is also a drought resistant crop and available at all seasons which could reliably be used as supplement to the low quality grass during the dry season when feed is scarce and of low quality, thereby increasing the productivity of the animals.