ESTIMATING PERFORMANCE AND METHANE EMISSION FROM YANKASA LAMB RAMS FED DIETS CONTAINING VARYING LEVELS OF CAMEL’S FOOT (Piliostigma thonningii) LEAF AND POD MEALS

CHAPTER ONE

1.0    INTRODUCTION

Small ruminants have the potential of converting highly fibrous feeds such as grasses, legumes, forages, farm wastes and crop residues of poor quality and unsuitable for human consumption to body tissue (Fajemisin et al., 2010). Also, small ruminants serve a multitude of functions ranging from food to organic fertilizers that are essential to human life in both rich and poor countries (Gatenby, 2002). Small ruminants are important part of global agricultural economy such that they play a major role in many local economies (Weaver, 2005). Traditionally, sheep and goats have served as means of ready cash and a reserve against skins that can feed the local leather industry. Sheep have high fertility and reproductive rates (Tona, 2011). However, seasonal variation in the supply of forage is one of the problems facing sheep production in Nigeria. This problem is more pronounced in Northern Nigeria during the dry season, when the rangelands are completely over-grazed.

Researchers attempted to address the issue of feed scarcity through the use of various browse plant species such as; Ficus thonningii (Yousuf and Ogundun, 2005), Daniellia oliveri (Isah et al., 2014) and Tithonia diversifolia (Odedire and Oloidi, 2014). The supplyof adequate feeds in terms of quality and quantity for small ruminant production becomes critical during the dry season period (Adegbola, 2002); this results in the assessment of the feeding value of the range plants which has been recently recognized as having the potential to address the problem of feed scarcity to ruminant livestock. Jimoh and Oladiji, 2005 reported the utilization of Piliostigma thonningii seeds as a cheap source of protein, energy, minerals and antioxidant supplement for ruminant livestock in southwest Nigeria.