The study was conducted at Abergelle Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopia using 24 yearling intact male Abergelle sheep with initial body weight of 17.52 ± 1.13 kg. The objectives were to evaluate substitution of dried mulberry (Morus indica L.) leaf meal (DMLM) for concentrate mix (CM) on feed intake, digestibility, body weight gain and carcass characteristics, and to determine cost benefit analysis of the supplementary regimes. The study comprised 90 days of feeding trial, 7 days of digestibility trial and carcass evaluation at the end. Six sheep were randomly assigned to each treatment using randomized complete block design. The treatments included feeding of ad libitum natural grass hay and supplementation with 100% CM (T1); 75% CM + 25% DMLM (T2); 50% CM + 50% DMLM (T3) and 25% CM + 75% DMLM (T4) on DM basis. The supplements were prepared isonitrogenous and they were offered to meet daily CP requirements of 80.4, 95.7 and 108 g for rams with body weight of 15, 20 and 25 kg, respectively. At beginning of experiment, amount of supplements provided were 439.49, 440.51, 440.75 and 440.50 g on DM basis for T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively. The CM contained noug seed cake (NSC) and wheat bran (WB) at ratio of 19.28: 80.72, 14.14: 60.86, 9.04: 40.96 and 3.92: 21.08 for T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively. The CP content of grass hay, WB, NSC and DMLM were 7.20, 16.80, 33.40 and 20.20%, respectively. The OM, CP, NDF, ADF and ADL intakes and digestibilities were similar among treatments but, hay and total DM intakes as well as DM digestibility were significantly higher (p<0.05) in T3 than T1. Calculated ME was greater (p<0.01) in T3 and T2 than T4 but similar in T1, T2 and T3. There was no significant differences among treatments for feed conversion efficiency, final body weight, ADG and most carcass parameters measured. The partial budget analysis showed that T4 had highest economical gain. Therefore, T4 is recommended on both biologically and economically efficient supplementary regime for Abergelle sheep.

This study was undertaken with the aim to determine the supplementary value of Beresa-55 and Gebisa-17 cultivars and concentrate mixture to a basal diet of natural pasture hay based on growth performance, feed utilization, digestibility and net return of Horro sheep. A total of twenty five yearlings Horro sheep were stratified into five groups based on initial body weight in randomized complete block design and animals were assigned to the dietary treatments randomly: (T1) (Control): ad-lib natural grass + concentrate mixture at 2% BW, (T2): ad-lib natural grass + Gebisa-17cultivar at 1.5% BW, (T3): ad-lib natural grass + Gebisa-17 cultivar at 2% BW, (T4): ad-lib natural grass + Beresa-55 cultivar at 1.5% BW and (T5): ad-lib natural grass + Beresa-55 cultivar at 2% BW. Basal hay DM intake was relatively higher in T2 and T4, while total DM and CP intake was higher in T1 and T5. Similarly, significantly higher digestibility of DM, CP and organic matter (OM) was obtained in T1 and T5. Dietary treatments also significantly (P<0.01) influenced the weight gain of lambs. Lambs in T1 and T5 had shown better (P>0.01) weight gain and enhanced comparable growth performance than in the other treatments. However, partial budget analysis indicates that, T5 is more profitable and thus, can be used as a priority supplement in feeding of Horro sheep.