April - June 2007 - Kasetsart University

292
was similar to what was found in the present study.
However, in contrast to their studies Mn (0.90
ppm) and Zn (0.50 ppm) were found extremely
low in the present study. This could be due to the
difference in soil sampling site. In the present
study, all of the mineral soils collected from four
sites in the region could not be used as phosphate
supplement for sheep as they contain relatively
low amount of this mineral than the 10 ppm critical
level suggested by McDowell (1997). This is in
agreement with the works of (Kabaija and Little,
1987; Mohamed et al., 1989; Fikre, 1990) who
found that soils from Central and Eastern parts of
Ethiopia low in phosphorus. Phosphorus
deficiency results in reduced growth and feed
deficiency, decreased appetite, impaired
reproduction and weak fragile bone (Underwood,
1981). The Fe, Mn and Zn concentrations in all
the soil samples were below critical level at 19
ppm for Fe set by Mtimuni (1982) and at 19 ppm
and 2 ppm for Mn and Zn by McDowell (1997).
Comparing to the stipulated critical levels, Fe, Mn
and Zn were found to deficit by 87 to 96%, 76 to
95% and 68 to 82%, respectively.
The fact that the Bole soils in this study
had lower Mn, Zn and Cu than the suggested
Kasetsart J. (Nat. Sci.) 41(2)
Table 2 Macro mineral compositions of soils collected from different sites.
Sites Ca P Mg K Na
Jair, ppm 39.42 2.06 16.20 5.07 191.00
Hermokale, ppm 52.20 8.00 6.91 5.26 179.00
Arabi, ppm 67.86 6.30 8.42 6.31 60.32
Bole, ppm 4.10 2.54 0.98 3.35 84.73
Complete mineral, % 8.19 10.01 0.50 - 20.78
Table 3 Micro mineral composition (ppm), Total Nitrogen and Organic Carbon of soils collected from
different sites.
Sites Fe Cu Co Mn Se Zn I TN (%) OC (%)
Jair 2.42 2.22 - 2.36 - 0.36 - 0.05 0.28
Hermokale 1.78 1.50 - 4.58 - 0.64 - 0.07 1.07
Arabi 0.78 0.66 - 2.96 - 0.50 - 0.09 0.98
Bole 1.00 0.28 - 0.90 - 0.50 - 0.04 0.67
Complete mineral 3,000.00 - 50.00 2,500.00 100.00 300.00 300.00 2.07 -
critical values. This was on the contrary to what
was reported by Kabaija and Little (1987) and
Fikre (1990) for Southern parts of Ethiopia. This
may be attributed to the difference in the time and/
or the specific area the soil samples were collected.
The Cu content of the soils from Jair and
Hermokale was higher than the critical level of
0.6 ppm (Mtimuni, 1982) but there was a high
degree of variation among samples. Apart from
Ethiopia, Cu deficient soils have also been reported
in several other African countries (Sillanpää,
1982). The current study is in agreement with the
result of Faye et al. (1983) who reported that Cu
and Zn were deficient in forage taken from
rangelands in Southern part of Ethiopia. Blood et
al. (1983) also reported that if the amount of copper
in the diet is inadequate and copper deficiency may
occur. Composition of the natural mineral soil in
the area indicated that Na was the dominant
mineral. According to NRC (1985) recommendation,
an appropriate mineral supplement should
contain at least 0.04% to 0.10% Na. The current
study indicated that Jair soil was found the highest
in Na concentration compared to other mineral
soils (Table 2). Although, macro minerals in the
soil are high compared to the requirement of