Influence of Dietary Feeding Rumen Contents on Diet Digestibility, Performance and Carcass Characteristic of Growing Local Lambs

Abstract

A total of 18 lambs with initial weight of 20.0 ± 1.19 kg were used to assess the effect of dietary inclusion of rumen contents on nutrient digestibility growth performance and carcass quality. Animals were grouped into two groups and individually penned receiving their respective diets. Coarsely ground sorghum Stover was used as roughage source. Sorghum Stover-rumen contents mixture was prepared as 1:4 ratios on fresh basis. Two iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous complete diets were formed as control diets (SS- diet) and rumen contents diets (RC- diet). The first group of lambs (n=9) received the control diet (43.5% sorghum Stover , 30% groundnut cake, 25% molasses, 0.5% common salt , 0.5% di-calcium phosphate and vitamin and mineral mix 0.5%) with calculated ME (Metabolizable Energy) content of 8.44 MJ /kg DM (Dry Matter) and CP (Crude Protein) 16.03%.The second group (n=9) received the RC-diet (43.5% sorghum Stover-rumen contents mixture, 30% ground nut cake, 25% molasses, 0.5% common salt , 0.5% di-calcium phosphate and vitamin and mineral mix 0.5%) with calculated ME content of 8.28 MJ / kg DM and CP 16.27% (1: 4 parts of the chopped Sorghum Stover and dried under direct sun light for one to two days). The results revealed that dietary inclusion of rumen contents in lambs’ diets had no deteriorative effect on daily growth rate (170.0 ± 19.82 g) and 173.7 ± 23.77 g) or dressing out percentage (49.1 ± 1.45 and 48.9 ± 1.37%), digestible organic matter (669.8 ± 2.49 and 667.2 ± 4.83 g/kg) and digestible crude protein (609.4 ± 2.94 and 608.6 ± 5.68 g/kg) respectively. We concluded that rumen contents could safely be included in diets for growing lambs without any negative effect on diet digestibility or lambs’ performance or even carcass quality. Also the economical study revealed that the use of rumen contents in small ruminant’s diets could reduce the cost of feeding up to 22% beside reducing the total cost required to gain 1 kg body weight nearly 25%