Assessment and Evaluation of the Major Ruminant Feed Resources inBedele Wereda, Oromia, Ethiopia

TL;DR: In this article, a study was conducted to assess the available feed resource in Bedele district and evaluate the nutritional quality of the major ruminant feeds, and the results obtained indicated that natural pasture and crop residue were the major basal diets in the study area, during the study period.

Abstract: The study was conducted to assess the available feed resource in Bedele district and evaluate the nutritional quality of the major ruminant feeds. Semi-structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used in data collection on the available feed resource. Representative samples of feed resources commonly used in ruminant animal feeding in the study area during the months of December-February were collected monthly and subjected to laboratory chemical analysis. All the data collected were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) (version 20). The results obtained indicated that natural pasture and crop residue were the major basal diets in the study area, during the study period. The highest crude protein of 13.44% was recorded from brewery by product and the lowest (1.17%) from maize Stover. The highest fiber contents of 78.20 and 80.03% were recorded from teff straw and maize Stover respectively. The total livestock population and annual feed dry matter yield of the study area was estimated to be about 715.01 TLU and 1198.41 tons respectively. The annual total crude protein yield of the study area was estimated at 0.55 tons. At an estimated annual dry matter and crude protein requirement of 1630.23 and 17.87 tons, there is negative dry matter (481.81 tons) and crude protein (17.32 tons) balance in the study area. The annual metabolisable energy yield of the study area was estimated to be about 0.53% of the annual requirement indicating that strategic supplementation with protein and energy concentrate in the study area is appealing.