The diets of lambs in the tropical regions of Africa are severely deficient in protein and leguminous trees provide a potential source to offset this deficit. The present study was carried out to determine the suitability of the herbage from tagasaste (Chamaecytisus palmensis), a leguminous shrub abundant in the central highlands of Ethiopia, as a protein supplement for lambs. The first experiment was designed to determine the acceptability of the tagasaste fodder by lambs when fed at fresh, slightly wilted, highly wilted, and sun-dried states. The results showed that drying significantly increased the palatability of the fodder and intake increased from 139.6 g DM per day in the fresh to 347.6 g DM per day of the sun-dried state. The second experiment was to find out the level of sun-dried tagasaste supplementation for optimal performance of lambs fed a basal diet of native grass hay. The lambs consumed tagasaste supplement at average daily rates of 0, 57.3, 114.4, 178, and 230 g DM per day. Total DM intake significantly increased with supplementation ranging from 425.3 g per day in control diet to 612.7 g per day, when 230 g tagasaste was fed. Intake of CP also increased correspondingly from 20.5 to 73.4 g per day. The supplementary diet resulted in a significant increase in weight gain in lambs from 11.2 g per day in no tagasaste to 52.0 g per day when 178 g per day tagasaste was fed. Tagasaste supplementation did not result in substitution of grass hay intake. In a third trial, the grass hay basal diet was supplemented with 0, 68, 128, 188, and 238 g DM per day of tagasaste. Tagasaste supplementation significantly increased the intake of DM, OM, CP, and ADL and apparent digestibility of total feed DM, OM, NDF and ADL. Digestibility coefficients of total DM, OM, NDF and ADL increased from 0.59, 0.60, 0.57 and 0.035 in the control to 0.71, 0.73, 0.69 and 0.52, respectively, at 188 g DM per day tagasaste consumption. The results indicated that sun-dried tagasaste herbage could be used to supplement a basal diet of native grass hay for feeding lambs. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
