Paper Title
Growth Performance of Yankasa Ram Lambs fed Urea and Lime Treated Groundnut (Arachishypogeae) Shell in a Complete Diet

Abstract
The study was conducted to determine the effect of untreated and urea, lime and urea/lime treated groundnut (Arachishypogaea) shells in a complete diet fed to growing Yankasa ram lambs. Four treatment diets were formulated containing 40% untreated, 40% urea treated, 40% lime treated and 40% urea and lime treated groundnut shell. Twenty Yankasa ram lambs were used and randomly assigned to the four treatments with five animals per treatment in completely randomized design (CRD). The diet was formulated to have 15% crude protein (CP) content. The growth trial lasted for 90 days. Organic matter (OM) among the treatment diets ranged from 85.18 to 86.53% and lime treated diet has the highestbut crude protein content was more in urea/lime/ treated diet, and least CP was in urea treated diet. Parameters measured were daily weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, nutrients digestibility, nitrogen balance, blood metabolites cost and apparent profit. The growing ram lambs on urea/lime treated diet had the highest average daily weight gain (94.66g/d). In feed conversion ratio ram lambs on lime treated diet had the least mean values (8.94) and were significantly (P<0.05) different to those on urea and urea/lime treated diets. Three ram lambs from each of the treatment groups were randomly selected and housed in individual metabolism crates for digestibility. Urea treated diet showed better digestibility coefficient among the treatment diets (49.99%). The result of nitrogen intake was significantly (P<0.05) higher in rams lambs fed urea/lime treated diet compared with the other treatment groups. Nitrogen retained as percent intake was significantly (P<0.05) higher in the urea, lime and urea/lime treated diets than the untreated. Results of the economic analysis of growing ram lambs showed that ram lambs on lime treated diet had the highest feed cost (N4987.03) and those on urea/lime treated diet had the highest total weight gain (8.58Kg), followed by those fed lime treated diet but a better apparent profit was realized from ram lambs fed untreated diet (N1,893.22). It can be concluded that feed intake, nutrient digestibility and the growth performance of growing Yankasa ram lambs fed untreated and treated groundnut shells in a complete diet are encouraging. The use of ground groundnut shell in the diet of growing Yankasa ram lambs at 40% inclusion, treated or untreated is recommended. Keywords - Groundnut Shell, Urea, Lime, Ram Lambs, Yankasa Breeds