Effective Microbes (EM) Supplementation Effect on Feed Intake, Digestibility and Live Weight Changes of Washera Sheep Fed Wheat Straw

This study evaluated the effect of supplying effective microbes (EM) on feed Intake, digestibility and live weight changes of Washera sheep fed wheat straw. 24 intact male Washera sheep with initial body weight of 19.78 +/- 1.97 kg (Mean +/- SD) were used. The treatments include concentrate feed plus ad libitum wheat straw with no EM (T1), concentrate feed plus ad libitum wheat straw with 1% EM (T2), concentrate feed plus ad libitum wheat straw with 3% EM (T3) and concentrate feed plus ad libitum wheat straw with 5% EM (T4) of total dry matter (DM). The experiment consisted of ninety days of feeding trail, 10 days of digestibility trial. Wheat straw used for the experiment had a chemical composition of 92% DM, 5.43% organic matter (OM), 2.81% crude protein (CP), 75.24% neutral detergent fiber, 64.13% acid detergent fiber and 12.33% acid detergent lignin. A progressive increase in wheat straw intake was observed as the level of EM percentage increased from 1% to 5%. Except the concentrate supplement DM intake, significantly higher (P<0.01) wheat straw intake (378.2 g/d), total DM intake (646.6 g/d), total CP intake (67.9 g/d) and total OM intake (526.3 g/d) were recorded in T4 than the other treatments. DM, OM and CP digestibility was unaffected by treatment. Final body weight, weight change and feed conversion efficiency was not affected until the straw is treated with 5% EM (T4). The highest net income was obtained in sheep received T4.