Effect of Replacing Corn Grains with Citrus by-product in Concentrate Feed Blocks Form on the Performance and Feed Utilization of Lambs

Abstract

Multi-Nutrient concentrate feed blocks were using as a procedure of replacing corn grains with citrus pulp. Blocks were prepared with three replacement percentages: 0, 25 and 50% for Diet 1: served as control, Diet 2, and Diet 3, respectively. Diets were isocaloric and isonitrogenous with the same roughage concentrate ratio of 30% sugar cane bagasse: 70% concentrate feed blocks. Fifteen Barki male lambs 15.67± 0.30 kg of live body weight (LBW) and 4 months old were divided into three similar groups in a growth trial for 90 days. The results showed that the corn grains revealed a high content of TDN (86.57%), compare with citrus by-product (73.56%). Dry matter consumed was not significantly affected by replacing corn grains with citrus by-product in concentrate feed blocks, almost all digestion coefficients and blood biochemical criteria followed the same pattern, but crude fiber (CF) digestibility were significantly improved by increase the replacement ratio being (65.18, 67.87 and 68.78) for diet1, diet2 and diet3 respectively. Lambs in diet 1 showed higher (P ≤ 0.05) final body weight FBW, and microbial nitrogen yield (g) than those fed diet 3. Total body gain and average daily gain followed similar trend. Rumen NH3-N decreased significantly with the concentrations for diets 1, 2, and 3 being 18.87, 18.02, and 17.83 mg/100 mL, respectively. Overall, results suggest that partial replacement of corn grains with citrus by-products, up to 25% in the multi-nutrient blocks, results nearly similar sheep growth performance with no bad effect on digestion coefficients and blood biochemical.