Poultry manure and meat meal as a source of dietary nitrogen for sheep

Abstract

Two experiments were performed to test the feasibility of using poultry manure as a nitrogen source with a low quality roughage in maintenance diets of sheep. In experiment 1, three diets were offered, all including sorghum grain and cottonseed hulls. One contained no additional source of nitrogen, but the other two were designed to offer equal amounts of nitrogen, either from meat meal or from meat meal and poultry manure (nitrogen ratio of 1 : 2.8). The liveweight changes of sheep on the diet containing poultry manure and meat meal were no different from those of sheep on the diet to which meat meal only was added. In experiment 2, four diets were offered in a cross-over design. All diets included wheat straw and three of them contained wheat grain and meat meal and poultry manure (nitrogen ratio 1 : 3.1). The fourth diet consisted of wheat straw and chaffed lucerne hay. To simulate the litter from caged broilers, either 15 per cent or 30 per cent sawdust was added to two of the diets that contained poultry manure. Adding 15 per cent sawdust had no adverse effect on liveweight changes, the amount eaten, or dry matter digestibility. Inclusion of 30 per cent sawdust, however, resulted in weight loss and reduced feed intakes and dry matter digestibility.