Carcass and non-carcass yield characteristics of horro sheep fed elephant grass (pennisetum purpureum) ensiled with different proportion of dolichos lablab (lablab purpureus)

The study was conducted at Bako Agricultural Research Center with the aim to evaluate the effects of Elephant grass ensiled with different proportion of Dolichos lablab on carcass and non-carcass yield. Elephant grass was harvested after eight weeks of regrowth. While, Dolichos lablab harvested at 50% blooming stage and they were chopped separately, mixed, added with 3% molasses and ensiled. A total of twenty intact male yearling Horro sheep were stratified into four groups based on initial body weight in RCBD and assigned to the dietary treatments randomly. Dietary treatments were arranged as T1, T2, T3 and T4 respectively for Elephant grass ensiled alone, with 10, 20 and 30% of Dolichos lablab. Lambs in all treatments were supplemented with wheat bran at 1.5% body weight. The study comprised 90 days of feeding trial for evaluation of carcass parameters. Increasing the inclusion levels of Dolichos lablab in the Elephant grass silage significantly increased slaughter weight (P<0.01), empty body weight, hot carcass weight (P<0.001), Hind and fore quarter, Dressing percentage on SW basis, EBW basis and REMA (P<0.05). The dietary treatments were significantly influenced (P<0.05) mean weight of tail, heart, liver with gall bladder, omasum-abomasum, large and small intestine, head with tongue and total edible offal components. Feeding of ensiled Elephant grass with different proportion of Dolichos lablab significantly affect weight values of Skin, gut contents and head without tongue of Horro lambs. Whereas, the rest parameters of non-edible offal components were not influenced. Therefore, addition of 20-30% Dolichos lablab in Elephant grass silage enhanced the nutritive value of Elephant grass silage for better growth and carcass yields of Horro sheep.