# Investigated Different Ratios of Cotton Seed Cake With Dried Sesbania sesban Leaves on the Feed Intake, Digestibility and Growth Performance of Semien Sheep

## TL;DR

This study found that mixing cotton seed cake with dried Sesbania leaves improves sheep digestion and growth while being cost-effective.

## Contribution

The novel finding is that a 50% cotton seed cake and 50% Sesbania sesban mix optimizes both biological and economic outcomes for Semien sheep.

## Key findings

- Sheep fed 50% cotton seed cake and 50% Sesbania leaves had the highest body weight change and digestibility.
- The 50% mix provided the highest net economic return compared to other ratios.
- Cotton seed cake alone resulted in the lowest hay intake and growth performance.

## Abstract

Currently the cost and availability of protein‐source feed for fattening of sheep is challenging.

This study investigated different ratios of cotton seed cake with dried Sesbania sesban leaves on the feed intake, digestibility and growth performance of Semien sheep.

The experiment was conducted for 90 days with 7 days of digestibility trials. A total of 20 intact male Semien lambs with an initial body weight of 15.16 ± 0.96 were used. A randomized complete block design was used with five treatments: T1 = 100% cotton seed cake (CSC), T2 = 75% CSC + 25% SSL, T3 = 50% CSC + 50% SSL, T4 = 25% CSC + 75% SSL and T5 = 100% SSL were offered 300 g/day as feed basis, and the natural pasture hay and water were given ad libitum. Data on feed intake, body weight change and digestibility were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using statistical analysis system (SAS) 20.0.

The lowest (p < 0.01) hay dry matter (DM) intake was recorded for T1. The total DM intake was highly significant (p < 0.01) among treatment groups in the order of T4 > T3 = T5 > T2 > T1. The apparent digestibility of DM, organic matter (OM) and crude protein (CP) was highly significant (p < 0.001) among treatment groups. There were high records (p ≤ 0.001) of body weight change at T3 and low in T1. The partial budget analysis showed that the net return of T3, T2, T1, T4 and T5 was 1024, 990.37, 903 and 790.12 ETB/treatment, respectively.

The findings showed that from biological and economic responses, sheep fed on 50% CSC + 50% SSL could be recommended.

The price of feed cost is one of the main challenges for animal producers in Ethiopia. Sesbania is not utilized for animal feed and is commonly found in different geographical locations. Therefore, mixing of cotton seed cake with dried Sesbania sesban leaves at equal proportion improves biological performance of Semien sheep and economically visible.