Comparative Performance of Goats and Sheep Fed Cotton Seed Hulls and Poultry Wastes Based Concentrate Mixture

Feeding of cotton seed hulls (CSH) and concentrate mixture (CM) containing poultry wastes at 30% level by keeping the roughage and concentrate components at 50:50 and 70:30 ratios was compared in goats and sheep. Effective degradable dry matter (EDDM) of CSH was almost similar both in goats (15.1%) and sheep (13.2%). However, effective degradable nitrogen (EDN) of concentrate mixture was higher insheep (57.1%) than ingoats (49.8%). Rumen pH values were similar in both the species. However, rumen NH₃-N concentration was higher in goats than in sheep irrespective of roughage to concentrate ratio. Higher nutrient digestibility of total ration containing CSH and concentrate at 50:50 ratio was observed in goats, but total DMI (g/kgW^0.75) was higher (P<0.01) in sheep (74.4) than in goats (47.7). CP digestibility was higher (P<0.05) in sheep (36.68%) than Sri goats (27.04%) on increasing level of CSH from 50 to 70%. Supplementation of CSH with concentrate mixture containing poultry wastes (30%) improved overall nutrient digestibility in Nellore sheep than in native goats.