Ocen, 1992. Livest. Res. Rural Dev., 4 (1): 64-73

Two feeding experiments were conducted at Makerere University Research Institute, Kabanyolo (MUARIK) to determine intake and liveweight change in growing Friesian steers given maize stover as basal diet supplemented with urea/molasses, immature fresh green elephant grass and cotton seed cake (CSC). In experiment 1, sixteen steers aged 9 months and averaging 173 kg liveweight were used in a randomized block design. The diets used were: chopped maize stover (C) as control; chopped maize stover + urea/molasses (CU); chopped maize stover + 2 kg/animal/day of immature fresh green elephant grass (CG); and chopped maize stover + urea/ molasses + 2 kg/animal/day of immature fresh green elephant grass (CUG). Each animal got a constant input of 1 kg/day of cotton seed cake. Mean maize stover dry matter intakes (DMI) for the four treatments were C 1.6, CU 2.1, CG 1.7 and CUG 2.2kg/animal/day. Total DMI was C 2.5, CU 3.2, CG 2.9 and CUG 3.6 kg/animal/day. The average daily liveweight gain (ADG) was C 357, CU 611, CG 525 and CUG 718 g/day. The differences in maize stover DMI, total DMI and ADG were significant (P<0.05). In experiment 2, the treatment CUG was used as the basal diet in order to measure the response of growing Friesian steers aged 15 months and averaging 327 kg liveweight to graded levels (0, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000 g/animal/day) of cotton seed cake. The regressions of total DMI, ADG and kg CSC/kg gain ratio on cotton seed cake were significant (P<0.05). Under the conditions of these experiments, urea/molasses (experiment 1) and the 500 g level of cotton seed cake (experiment 2) may be recommended as the best supplements on the basis of labour and cost.