Effect of replacing cotton seed cake with poultry droppings on weight gainof growing cattle at Bambui, Cameroon

To investigate the effect of replacing cotton seed cake by poultry dropping s in the diet of cattle, 30 animals were randomly allocated to three dietar y treatments in a 2x3 factorial design, sexxtreatments. The three treatment s consisted of replacing 0%, 25% and 50% (T0, T25, T50 respectively) of the crude protein in 500 g of cotton seed cake with an equivalent amount of pr otein in poultry droppings. The concentrate offered was 615 g in T0, 652.5 g in T25 and 690 g in T50 per animal per day. After an adaptation period of 14 days, followed by 65 days of the experiment, the intake of concentrate and the average daily weight gains were recorded. There was no significant difference (p >0.05) in the concentrate intake or average daily weight gain of bulls subjected to the three treatments. However, heifers tended to gro w more slowly on T50 compared to T0 (p <0.05), though the difference in the ir intake of concentrate was not significant (p >0.05). Although T50 (47% i nclusion in total concentrate), was less palatable, it seemed to have incre ased forage intake from pasture. These results suggest that poultry droppin gs can effectively substitute cotton seed cake in the diets of suckler catt le.