Tesfaye Tadesse1*, Milkessa Gelana1, Tusa Gemechu1, Birmaduma Gadissa1, Berhanu Geremew1
A total of 27 Horro rams from Bako Agricultural Research Center were used with the main objective of evaluating growth performance and carcass characteristics of Horro rams supplemented with Wheat bran – Noug Cake concentrate. The rams were randomly assigned to three different treatments based on their initial liveweight. The three treatments were: T1= Rhodes grass hay ad lib +Concentrate (69.5% Wheat bran + 29.5% Noug cake + 1% Salt), T2= Rhodes grass hay ad lib + Concentrate (55.5% Wheat bran + 33.5% Noug cake + 10% Maize + 1% Salt), and T3= Rhodes grass hay ad lib + Concentrate (49.5% Noug cake + 49.5% Maize grain + 1% Salt). There was a significant variation in final body weight between T1 and T3, T3 showing a higher final body weight. However, the Least Square Difference of Means (LSD) showed that, there was no significant difference in final body weight between rams in T2 and T3. Similarly, there was no significant difference in final body weight between rams in T1 and T2. The results of this study have showed that total substitution of maize grain with wheat bran resulted in a lower final body weight and average daily weight gain. On the contrary, as a result of variations in price of the concentrate mixtures, the net return value was not significantly varied. So, from the control concentrate mixture which is 49.5% Noug cake + 49.5% Maize grain + 1% Salt, 40% of noug cake and the whole maize grain could be substituted with wheat bran without affecting the crude protein content. Thus, a concentrate mixture of T1 (69.5% Wheat bran + 29.5% Noug cake + 1% Salt) can be used instead of T3 (49.5% Noug cake + 49.5% Maize grain + 1% Salt).
