Composition, digestibility and feed intake of Opuntia ficus indica by Ogaden sheep.

First of all spineless Opuntia is an important source of water for livestock in tropical regions. The water content of one-year sprouts amounted to 92.5%. 70 to 75% of dry matter of Opuntia ficus indica were crude carbohydrates, approximately 20% were crude ash. The apparent digestibility of organic matter was considerably high (70.9%), the energy content amounts to 35 and 467 EFUc per kg of fresh and dry matter respectively. Opuntias are roughage, their energy content is similar to that of grass or legumes during flowering. The protein content is too low (4.5 to 5.5% crude protein of dry matter) in order to meet the protein requirements of animals. When they had the choice rams preferred chopped fresh Opuntia (61.6% of the whole DM intake) to chopped dried Opuntia (34.7%) and whole fresh Opuntia (3.7%) apart from a certain basal diet (200 g of meadow hay and 200 g of concentrate per animal and day). If only one of the three differently treated forms of Opuntia was fed (apart from the basal diet) the sheep consumed daily 359 g of dry matter of chopped fresh Opuntia (approximately the same amount as if they had the choice, 101%), 313 g of dry matter of chopped dried Opuntia (88%) and 121 g of dry matter of whole fresh sprouts of Opuntia (34% of the total intake when they had the choice.) According to the obtained results spineless Opuntia ficus indica can be used in chopped form as an additional feed to other roughages (like grass, hay, straw) especially during the dry season.