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Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa offer their stocks little or no supplementary feed but depend mostly on native pastures which are in low nutrient quality. The study was aimed at evaluating the effect of feeding regime on growth performance, nutrient metabolism, rumen indices and economics of production of Yankasa rams fed basal diets of grain sorghum hay or silage supplemented with concentrate. Sixteen growing Yankasa rams weighed 17.0±0.2 kg were randomly assigned to four feeding regime treatment: T1 = Sorghum hay + concentrate daily, T2 = Sorghum silage + concentrate daily, T3 = Sorghum silage + concentrate after 1-day and T4 = Sorghum silage + concentrate after 2-days. The parameters measured were hay intake, concentrate intake, total feed intake, daily feed intake, initial weight, final weight, weight gain, daily weight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR), apparent nutrient digestibility, nitrogen balance and costs-benefit. The result showed that hay intake (25.28 – 29.23 kg), concentrate intake (6.19 – 19.41 kg), total feed intake (35.41 – 48.47 kg), daily weight gain (0.04 – 0.05 kg) and weight gain (2.85 – 3.35 kg) were significantly (P |
