The Journal of Research ANGRAU

NARASIMHA et al
Table 1. Proximate composition of experimental ration and poultry litter (%DM)
Proximate principle Experimental ration (%) Poultry litter (%)
Dry matter 91.25 93.45
Organic matter 80.00 63.21
Crude protein 12.18 15.70
Ether extract 1.87 0.87
Crude fibre 30.17 15.08
Total ash 20.00 36.78
Acid insoluble ash 6.19 12.39
Nitrogen free extract 35.78 31.57
Calcium 0.89 4.57
Phosphorous 0.76 3.7
on various factors like dry matter, season, climatic
condition and type of feed (Taneja, 1969; Mehrothra
and Mullick, 1960).
There was no significant difference in
digestibility co-efficient of Dry matter, Organic matter,
(Table 2). Similar findings were reported by
(Mallikarjuna, 1989), in sheep and goats fed rations
containing cotton straw, maize cobs for dry matter.
A non-significant difference in digestibilities for Crude
Protein was observed in sheep and goats. Similar
results were reported by (Murthy et al., 1996) when
fed poultry litter and poultry droppings in the pelleted
ration. The lower digestibility of Crude Protein in the
present experiment may be due to incorporation of
cotton seed hulls at 40 percent level. The cotton seed
hulls contained about 31 percent lint, mostly made
of cellulose and about 14.3 percent lignin. It is quite
likely that proteins in the cotton seed hulls are located
in the structural component of cell. Structural protein
(Maynard et al., 1981) which may not be available
for the microbes to attack due to high lignin content.
Further the fineness of cotton seed hulls during
processing might have also contributed to lower
digestibility due to faster rate of passage through the
digestive tract (Keys and Smith., 1984). There was
no significant difference in ether extract and crude
fibre digestibility in the two species of sheep and
goats (Table 2). The findings are in agreement with
those of (Sreedhar et al., 1993).
The non-significant difference in Nitrogen free
extract digestibility between sheep and goats
observed in the present study concur with the results
of (Murthy et al., 1996) who also reported nonsignificant
difference in Nitrogen free extract
digestibility between sheep and goats fed poultry
litter/poultry droppings based pelleted ration. All
experimental animals were in positive N, Ca, and P
balances indicating that the experimental feed
supplied these nutrients in required quantities to both
species. Sheep retained significantly (P>0.01) higher
N, Ca and P than goats (Table 2). This could be
attributed to higher Dry matter intake in sheep. The
ration met Digestible crude protein (DCP) and Total
digestible nutrients (TDN) requirements as
recommended by ICAR (1985). The results of this
study indicate that complete feed containing poultry
litter up to 35 percent level could be utilized for feeding
of small ruminants. The complete ration formulated
in this study met the nutritive requirement of sheep
and goats. Further it was observed that poultry litter
could be used up to 35 percent level in complete
feeds of small ruminant rations as an un- conventional
protein source without any adverse effect.
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