Utilization of raw, cooked or fermented cassava-urea meal in a total diet for growing ewe-lambs

The nutritive value of cassava meal (CM), raw cassava-urea meal (RCU), cooked cassava-urea meal (CCU), and fermented cassava-urea meal (ECU) mixed with other ingredients were evaluated in this study using West African dwarf sheep. Twenty ewe-lambs (6 months old) and twelve ewes (12 months old) were respectively used for growth and metabolic investigations. Dry matter (DM) intake was 2,1 3, 3.25, 3.20 and 3.35 % BW; growth rate 48.3, 67.5, 86.9 and 88.3 g/day; and feed conversion ratio (FC7R) was 8.76, 7.54, 6.49 and 6.52 for CM, RCU, CCU and ECU respectively. DM digestibility was 58.5, 68.4, 73.3 and 72.5 % while nitrogen retention Was 40.5, 30,9, 46.3 and 45.4 % for CM, RCU, CCU and FCU respectively. Nutrient utilization and growth of ewe-lambs fed cassava-based diets improved with addition of urea to cassava meal. Cooking or fermentation further improved nutritive value and feed conversion ratio of cassava-urea meal. Since fermentation requires less labour and energy costs than cooking, it may be the preferred option for processing cassava-urea mixtures for ruminant feeds by resource-poor farmers in Nigeria.