Authors : Ensiyeh Hashemipour, Najafgholi Dabiri and Hamideh Hashemipour
Abstract: The effect of dietary containing different levels of steam treated pith on performance and carcass characteristics in growing Arabi lambs were investigated during a period of 10 weeks (70 days) using 40 lambs of 3 months old with an average live weight of 18.25 kg. The dietary treatments were 100% barley (diet 1), 75% barley + 25% pith (diet 2), 50% barley + 50% pith (diet 3) and 25% barley +75% pith (diet 4), respectively. The total pith contents of diets 1-4 were 0, 11, 22 and 33% (pith), respectively. The lambs were allocated to the diets (10 lambs diet-1) according to a completely randomized design. The diets formulated according NRC and had approximately, similar nutrients contents. Average Dry Matter Intake (DMI) of lambs fed diets 1-4 during whole period of experiment were 1400, 1441, 1389 and 1466 g day-1, respectively. Average Daily Gain (ADG) of lambs for diets 1-4 during whole period of experiment were 267±19.3, 307±18.8, 251±42.1 and 226±28.3 g day-1, respectively. Despite non significantly differences between ADG of control group with lambs fed diet 2 and 3, but lambs fed diet 4 had significantly (p<0.05) lower ADG than control group. The same trend was found for feed conversion ratio (F/G). Average F/G were 5.24±0.2, 4.7±0.2, 5.5±0.74 and 6.5±0.65, respectively for diets 1-4. The main carcass characteristics (composition and chops) were not affected by dietary treatments (p>0.05), but diet 2 had the best economic efficiency. This study suggests that lambs fed diet 3 had also better net return than control group, which is important for Iran condition. So, it is concluded that pith a by product of sugarcane has potential as an alternative feed source for ruminants, particularly for fattening lambs.
Ensiyeh Hashemipour, Najafgholi Dabiri and Hamideh Hashemipour, 2009. Effect of Diets Containing Different Levels of Steam Treated Pith Bagasse on Performance and Carcass Characteristics of Fattening Arabi Lambs. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 8: 2139-2142.