PERFORMANCE AND HAEMATOLOGICAL INDICES OF BALAMI RAMS FED CATTLE URINE-ENSILED SORGHUM STOVER AS SOURCE OF NON-PROTEIN NITROGEN

A 90-days feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of replacing fertilizer grade urea with cattle urine in sorghum stover silage on the performance and haematological indices of Balami rams. Five diets were formulated. Diet 1 (control) contained sorghum stover ensiled with fertilizer grade urea (FGU) while diets 2, 3, 4 and 5 had 25, 50, 75 and 100% levels of cattle urine as replacement for FGU. Twenty (20) rams of the Balami breed were allotted to the five diets in replicates of four in a completely randomized design. Data on daily feed intake, weight gain and haematological indices were collected Results showed no significant influence of cattle urine on daily feed intake. However, Daily weight gain was significantly (P<0.05) higher on T5 (128.11 g) and T4 (124.08 g) which were the same, than on other diets which also did not differ (101.67 – 103.65 g). Similarly, Rams fed T5 (34.53 kg) had higher (P<0.05) final weight than those on other diets which were the same (30.30 – 31.93 kg). Feed conversion ratio was significantly (P<0.05) better on T5 (5.74) and T4 (5.88) compared to T1 (7.19), T2 (7.13) and T3 (7.06) which were poorer. All haematological indices did not significantly differ among diets. It was therefore concluded that cattle urine can completely replace fertilizer grade urea as silage additive in sorghum stover and as non-protein nitrogen source in balami rams diets.