Poultry wastes as a feedstuff for sheep

Fresh excreta from caged laying hens were treated with 3% tannic acid or 2% paraformaldehyde. Two diets were made up with 64% wet weight of the excreta, 28% lucerne hay and a little maize, molasses and supplements. The diets had gross energy (GE) 3.9 to 4.0 kcal/g. A control diet had moistened soya bean oilmeal in place of the excreta and had 4.4 kcal/g. The control diet had 45 g N/kg and the others had 39 g with a higher proportion of NPN. The 3 diets were given to 6 sheep of about 37 kg in a Latin square metabolism trial. DM intakes were lower on the excreta treated with paraformaldehyde than the other diets, and water intake and urine output were significantly lower. Digestibility of DM and total N was 69.9 and 80.8 for the control diet, 59.3 and 71.8 the diet with tannic acid and 54.8 and 71.5 that with paraformaldehyde, all differences significant except for crude protein digestibility on the 2 diets with excreta. Samples of these 3 diets and of another made with untreated excreta were ensiled on a small scale for 42 days. The pH of the silage with soya was 4.4, significantly lower than the values of 4.9 to 5.4 for the silages with excreta. Ammonia N was 5.4% of total N in soya silage, 14.9% with untreated droppings and 13.9 and 9.5% with tannic acid or paraformaldehyde. Lactic acid concentrations were significantly lower with paraformaldehyde and propionic and butyric acid concentrations were low with soya..