Mekonnen H., Endale M., Salvador F., Tegegne A.
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 34, Debre Zeit, Ethiopia; International Livestock Research Institute, ILRI, P.O. Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Mekonnen, H., Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 34, Debre Zeit, Ethiopia; Endale, M., Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 34, Debre Zeit, Ethiopia; Salvador, F., International Livestock Research Institute, ILRI, P.O. Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Tegegne, A., International Livestock Research Institute, ILRI, P.O. Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of feeding with two maize (Zea mays) cultivars (Quality Protein Maize [QPM] and common maize [BH540]) on growth performance, food efficiency and carcass traits in Ethiopian highland Arsi type ram lambs. Each maize variety was offered in 3 different forms (stover form, whole plant silage and earless silage) that constituted 6 dietary treatments. A total of 49 Arsi ram lambs, 6-8 months old, weighing 18-21 kg were randomly divided into 7 equal groups: whereas the first group was initially slaughtered for establishing base line information, the 6 other groups received the different dietary treatments for 12 weeks. Diets based on whole plant silage significantly improved final weights and weight gains (p < 0.001), the food conversion ratio (p < 0.001) and the carcass traits (slaughter weights, hot and cold carcass weights, dressing percentage and the total edible offal) (p < 0.01 to p < 0.001) compared to diets based on earless silage or stover form. Moreover, although differences were not significant between groups fed with the 2 maize varieties for a given distributed form, the highest growth rates and the highest carcass component yields were obtained with the QPM distributed as whole plant silage and the lowest results were observed with the BH540 in earless silage. These results showed the superiority of the whole plant silage form in promoting faster growth rate with higher carcass components yields in Arsi ram lambs and suggest the zootechnical interest of the variety QPM.