Growth performance of grazed indigenous steers offered different feed supplements
Abstract
Although there are many natural forages available within rangelands, their nutritional content
may not be adequate to meet all the animal’s nutrient requirements. Supplementation is therefore
vital to meet the animals’ nutritional demands. There is therefore need to determine response of
animals to different feed supplements to guide farmers appropriately. The objective of this study
therefore was to evaluate the growth performance of indigenous steers raised on a basal diet of
Brachiaria spp. and Hyparrhenia rufa grasses supplemented with either cotton seed (CSC) cake,
wheat bran (WB) or a combination of the two; in addition to Tithonia diversfolia. The
experiment was laid in a completely randomized design consisting of 12 indigenous steers
(average weight 95 kg) which were divided into four treatment groups each comprising three
animals (replications). Chemical composition of the feeds and, average daily weight and height
changes of the animals were determined over a period of 8 weeks. Among the basal feeds,
Brachiaria spp. had higher crude protein (12.57%) than Hyparrhenia rufa (5.47%). Yet
Brachiaria spp had the higher NDF (40.8%) than Hyparrhenia rufa (38.7%). Regarding the
supplements, Tithonia diversifolia had the highest crude protein (28.3%), followed by cotton
seed cake (23.5%) and least content was determined in wheat bran (12.8%). However, CSC had
the highest NDF (39.2%), followed by Tithonia diversifolia (34.0%) and least was in wheat bran
(30. 1%).indigenous steers that were supplemented with CSC and those that received a
combination of CSC and WB had higher and similar live weight gains (P ≤ 0.05) compared to
those that did not receive any additional supplement and those that received WB alone. Height at
withers was not affected by the different diets (P > 0.05), Supplementation with 1 kg of cotton
seed cake per animal per day meant a daily cost of 1000shs compared to 600 shs for the animals
that were supplemented with a mixture of wheat bran and cotton seed cake. From the findings of
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This study, it is concluded that supplementing animals with a combination of CSC and other
cheaper feed resources gives performance equivalent to that of supplementing with CSC alone at
a cheaper cost. Farmers should therefore aim at supplementing basal diets with a combination of
nutrient rich supplements and cheaper feed supplements to improve animal growth at lower
costs.