Intake, nutrient metabolism and balance studies in sheep fed Himalayan Elm (Ulmus wallichiana) leaf meal incorporated total mixed ration

With the soaring cost and scarcity of concentrate feeds worldwide, use of un-conventional tree foliages in the animal diets can be effective in curtailing the feeding costs to economise livestock production. The present experiment was conducted with the aim to assess incorporation of Himalayan Elm (Ulmus wallichiana) leaf meal (ELM) as partial replacement to conventional concentrate feed mixture (CFM) in total mixed ration (TMR) of sheep. In Experiment-I (in vitro study), the effect of graded increasing levels (0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50%) of ELM inclusion as replacement to CFM constituting 40% in the basal TMR on nutrient degradability was assessed. The results revealed the effective level for optimal nutrient degradability at 30% ELM inclusion. In Experiment-II (in vivo study), a feeding trial was conducted for 30 days on sheep (16) distributed equally into two groups, offered basal TMR as control (Cont) and TMR containing ELM replacing CFM at 30% level as treatment group (ELMG), the level selected based on results of optimum nutrient degradability in in vitro assay. Without affecting dry matter and organic matter intakes, ELM included diet enhanced crude protein and neutral detergent fibre digestibility. Moreover, content and the intakes of digestible nutrients were similar between the two groups, with total digestible nutrients intake being 56.66% and 61.88% more than the recommendation in control and ELMG groups, respectively. Animals of both the groups were in positive balances of N, Ca and P, though N balances (g/d) and live weight gain (g/d) were comparable while Ca and P balances (g/d) were higher in ELMG. Cost of production lowered with 35.84% reduction in feed cost per kg live weight gain in ELMG group compared to control. It was concluded that 30% CFM in TMR for sheep could be replaced with ELM safely as a sustainable strategy to alleviate the conventional feed shortage for profitable sheep rearing.