The Economic Potential of Compounding Rabbit Diets with Graded Levels of Moringa oleifera Leaf Meal
Keywords:
Cost benefit ratio, feed convers leaf meal, Moringa oleifera, rabbitAbstract
The economics of raising rabbits using Moringa oleifera Leaf Meal (MoLM) supplemented diets was experimented in this study that lasted for 56 days. A total of twenty four, 2-3 months old weaned rabbits of mixed sexes with an average initial weight of 1.00kg – 1.18kg were randomly allocated to four diets which were formulated with Moringa oleifera leaf meal (MoLM) replacing soybean meal at 0% (control), 5%, 10% and 15% designated as T1, T2, T3 and T4 respectively. The animals were randomly distributed into 3 replicates comprising 2 rabbits per replicate using Completely Randmonised Block Design (CRBD). The results obtained show among many others that significant differences existed in weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, cost of feed (kg), cost of weight gain, production cost (TVC) and net benefit. It also reveals that MoLM can conveniently replace up to 15% of expensive sources of protein in rabbit diet without compromising performance and favouring production cost positively. Hence, rabbit farmers are encouraged to patronize the use of MoLM as feed source for their rabbits
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