Performance of Western Buggara Bulls Fed On Rations Containing High Levels Of Poor Quality Acro-Industrial By-Products

Abstract

LivestoCk lin the Sudan has customarily been maintained on feedstuffs that come from three main sources, viz. natural rangeland grazmg, grown fodder crops and cereal grains. Unfortunately there 'is considerable evidence to indi'cate bhat the productivity of feedstuffs from these sources is declining rather than rising to matoh the steadily increasing livestock popUlation. Large grazing areas have [ost their plant cover as a result of desert~fication that swept the country during the drought years of the eady seventies. Land suit<l!ble 'for arable farming is used for cash and food crops rather bhan for forage crops as the former should have clear priori,ty over feed production. The .other source of animal feed, cereal grains, which in the Sudan consists almost entirely IQf sorghum, can no longer be relied upon for ,this purpose as the demand for its consumption by human beings is increasing.