**10. Conclusion**

250 Agricultural Science

Table 3 contains the results of the performance of West African Dwarf rams fed Baobabbased concentrate supplement. The grass intake was slightly higher than concentrate supplement intake in all the treatment groups including the control. (0% Baobab inclusion

Final Av. Body wt (kg) 12.38±0.29 12.47±0.23 12.30+0.23 13.14±0.23 Av. Growth rate (g/day) 62.50±9.3b 65.48±7.6b 69.52±7.6b 89.3±7.6a

i.Concentrate diet(%BW) 1.40±0.02b 2.0±0.02ab 1.7±0.02b 2.5±0.02a ii.panicum maximum(%BW) 1.7±0.004c 2.3±0.004b 2.0±0.004c 2.7±0.004a Total DM intake (%BW) 3.1±0.002b 4.3±0.024b 3.7±0.024b 5.2±0.024a Feed Efficiency (kg) 15.7±1.56 14.7±1.27 14.9±1.27 17.6±1.27

Table 3. Performance of West African Dwarf Rams on adansonia digitata based concentrate

Table 4 showed that the differences among treatments for pulse rate, respiratory rate and rectal temperature at the end of the experiment were not significantly different from initial conditions. This shows uniformity in the environmental parameters, physiological state of

> **Initial/final 2**

rate (beats/min) 78/78 76/76 78/78 78/78

temperature (°C) 38.5/39.7 38.7/38.7 39/39 39.1/39.2

The high level of moisture content (89.3%) in the baobab bark could be an advantage as sole feed for ruminants in the period of scarcity of water. The consumption of high water content forages reduces water intake by ruminant, but may however make for difficulties in obtaining a sufficiently high DMI (payne, 1990). The 10.70% crude protein in the Baobab bark appears to be adequate in the compounded ration of ruminant. A diet of 10% crude protein has been reported adequate in meeting the maintenance requirements of sheep and goats (NRC, 1980). Adansonia digitata bark would appear from the proximate component,

**Diets** 

34/36 36/36 34/34 36/36

**Initial/final 3** 

**Initial/final 4** 

abc means in the same row with different superscripts are significantly different (P<0.05)

the animals and lack of effect of dietary treatments on the animals.

**Initial/final 1** 

Table 4. Performance of the animals to Heat index

to be adequate as sole feed supplement for sheep.

 **D1 D2 D3 D4** 

**Parameters Diets** 

Average DM intake

supplement

**Parameters** 

Average respiratory rate (beats/min)

Average pulse

Average rectal

**9. Discussion** 

From this present study, it can be concluded that to get a better performance than control, the concentrate supplement must contain about 15% inclusion of Adansonia digitata in the diets of rams. However, higher level of inclusion of baobab bark beyond 15% in the concentrate supplement for sheep is recommended since the highest level in the trial (15%) induced the highest performance.
