"Biomass Yields and Nutritive Composition of Leucaena Varieties in Irrigated Lowland of Dassench Woreda of South Omo, South-Western Ethiopia"

Abstract

“The overall productive and reproductive performances of livestock in Ethiopia are generally very low” [1-3]. Likewise, the poor-quality feeds and inadequate supply of feed biomass from the grazing-land (natural-pasture) to livestock in South Omo Zone are one of the important element that are contributing to low outputs (milk, meat and growth rates) from the livestock [4,5]. It seems that the nutritive values generated from the grazing-lands are seriously affected by dynamics of pasture-forages [5,6]. Hence, nutritive values from the extensive-grazing-lands do not realize the crude protein and energy demands of livestock. “This is activating to escalation great slow growth rates, high mortality, longer calving intervals and substantial weight loss” [7,8]. The supplementary feeding system is the addition of some feeds that are rich with vital nutrients to low-quality-forage to improve the intake and digestibility of low-quality forages aimed for higher outputs from animals. The evaluating and familiarizing of locally adaptable improved forages-crops to supplement the extensive-pasture-grazing system for pastoral and agro-pastoral areas is only the way to engulf feed shortages [4,5]. The Leucaena species is one of legume fodder trees, which is evergreen, highly branched and have a fast-growing potential, which grows up to a height of 5m to 20m [9]. It well adapted and better yielded in a wide range of rainfall environments which ranging from 6503,000mm with warm temperatures ranging from 25°C to 30°C [10]. ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT