LAUSR

Abstract Background Animal feed shortage in quality and quantity, and escalating costs of agro‐industrial by‐products to supplement crop residues and natural pasture hay urged to look for alternative feed supplements. Vernonia amygdalina leaf is one of the potential feed resources to supplement poor quality feeds in ruminant feeding. Objectives This experiment was designed to evaluate effects of supplementing dried V. amygdalina leaves (DVL) and wheat bran (WB) mixture on feed intake, digestibility, body weight change and economic feasibility of Arsi–Bale sheep fed with natural pasture hay as basal diet. Methods Twenty intact yearling male sheep with an initial body weight (IBW) of 18.85 ± 0.95 kg (mean ± SD) were stratified into five blocks (four animals per block) based on their IBW and kept for 90 days of feeding and 10 days of digestibility trials. Four treatment diets comprised ad libitum hay (control, T1) and ad libitum hay plus daily supplementation of 300 g dry matter (DM) in a ratio of 2DVL:1WB (T2), 1DVL:1WB (T3) and 1DVL:2WB (T4), and the treatment feeds were randomly assigned to each animal within a block. Data were subjected to the analysis of variance using the GLM procedure of SAS (version 9.1). Results The results showed that the crude protein contents of hay, DVL and WB were 9.4%, 21.5% and 15.5%, respectively. Supplementation improved (p < 0.0001) DM intake (DMI), apparent nutrient digestibility, average daily gain (ADG) and economic return. Sheep supplemented with two parts of DVL and one part of WB resulted significantly (p<0.0001) the highest DMI, DM and nutrient digestibility and a better feed conversion ratio. Consequently, they resulted highest ADG and net return. Conclusions Sheep fed with a basal diet of natural pasture hay supplemented with two parts of DVL and one part of WB is economical to improve body weight of Arsi–Bale sheep.