An experiment was conducted to evaluate fattening performance of Menz ram lambs fed grass hay basal diet and supplemented different combination of wheat bran and lentil broken screening. The treatments were T1 (30g wheat bran 133g lentil broken screening), T2 (235g lentil broken screening only), T3 (285g wheat bran only), and T4 (227g wheat bran and 120 lentil broken screening). Twenty four Menz ram lambs of 8 to 10 months of age were grouped into six blocks based on their initial body weight and treatments were randomly distributed to each block of four animals. Six animals per treatment were used for feed intake and body weight change evaluation. Five lambs from each treatment were randomly picked and used for evaluation of dry matter and nutrient utilization. The feeding trial result showed that the wheat bran and lentil screening combination affected (P≤0.01) the daily total dry matter intake (TDMI), concentrate dry matter intake and total crude protein intake of the lambs with the highest TDMI (814.47 g) recorded at T4. Final body weight attained, total body weight gain and average daily body weight gain of lambs on T4 were highest (P≤ 0.001) than recorded from T1, T2 and T3 diet categories. The experimental lambs showed lower (P≤ 0.01) feed conversion efficiency (0.06) for the diet containing 30g wheat bran and 133g lentil screening (T1) than the values recorded from T2, T3 and T4 diets. Sheep assigned to T4 and T3 diets showed higher (P≤0.05) dry matter digestibility than were in T1. Total nitrogen intake nitrogen digestibility and nitrogen retention were higher (P≤ 0.001) for lambs in T4 than T2, followed by T3 and T1 diet categories. Thus, a 227g wheat bran and 120g lentil broken screening concentrate mixture supplementation on grass hay basal diet was the best for fattening of Menz ram lambs with higher body weight gain and feed nutrient utilization.

Keywords: Digestibility, feed, lamb, lentil screening, nutrient utilization, wheat bran