Nutritional value of animal feed grade wheat as replacement for maize in lamb feeding for mutton production

Abstract

The utilization of abundantly available animal feed grade wheat (AFW) as a replacement for conventional and costly cereal supplement in lamb feeding to lower the cost of mutton production was explored. Thirty-five growing lambs divided into five equal groups and were fed diets containing 0, 118, 235, 353 or 470 g kg −1 AFW replacing equal quantity of maize. The diets were fed in the form of composite feed mixture, which had a roughage (Prosopis cineraria leaves) to concentrate ratio of 25:75. Dry matter intake (DMI) was not different in these groups, ranging from 35 to 42 g kg −1 body weight, while AFW inclusion linearly (P < 0.05) reduced DMI. The digestibility coefficients of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP) and cellulose were not affected by AFW addition, whereas neutral detergent fibre and acid detergent fibre digestibility coefficients were reduced (P < 0.05). The digestible CP content (142.7-162.7 g kg −1 diet) increased (P < 0.01) linearly with increased AFW inclusion levels. However, AFW additions did not affect metabolizable energy (ME) value of diet (10.2-10.5 MJ kg −1 diet DM). Digestible CP intake was similar but digestible DM and OM intake tended to decrease (P < 0.05) linearly when expressed in terms of g kg −1 W 0.75 . ME intake (MJ d −1 ) was not different among the diets but showed linear (P = 0.041) reducing trends with increasing AFW levels in diet. The efficiency of ME and N utilization for unit gain was also not affected by AFW incorporation. N retained as g d 31 g MN). MN when expressed as g kg −1 digestible organic matter intake (DOMI) and microbial protein g kg −1 digestible organic matter apparently fermented in rumen (DOMR) followed a similar trend. During the growth trial, lambs fed diets containing AFW (353 g kg −1 ), which replaced 75% maize had higher total gain (14 kg, P < 0.05) and average daily gain (ADG 154 g, P < 0.05). However, feed efficiency (feed consumed kg −1 live weight gain) was not different. Rumen pH and microbial enzyme activities studied 4 h post feeding revealed that AFW did not affect rumen pH, which ranged from 5.95 to 6.30. Similarly, carboxymethyl cellulase and β-xylosidase enzyme activities were not different among treatments, but AFW inclusion linearly (P = 003) increased carboxymethyl cellulase enzyme activities. The α-amylase enzyme activity differed significantly (P < 0.05) and was highest (22.6 IU) in groups where AFW replaced maize completely. It was concluded that, in lambs reared under intensive system for mutton production on high concentrate diets, conventional and costly energy supplements like maize can be replaced up to 75% with a low-cost animal feed grade wheat to economize on cost of production. However, more studies are required to confirm these inclusion levels for greater economic returns.

Effects of dietary replacement of maize grain with popcorn waste products on nutrient digestibility and performance by lambs

“…This corroborates with the finding of Dhakad et al (2002) who observed poor growth rates in lambs fed on diets containing 100% replacement of maize grain with wheat bran compared to diets containing lower replacement levels. Replacing maize with feed grade wheat at 75% level in a concentrate diet for lambs resulted in ADG of 154 g/d (Tripathi et al, 2007), which was higher than 109 g/d obtained with the diet that contained 75% of PW in the present study. a -e Means in the same row with different superscripts differ significantly (P <0.05).…”

“…This could be explained by the EE content of the diets which was less than 5% (Moore et al, 1986). The intake and digestibility characteristics of the present study were of typical high-concentrate fed animals, in which the digestibility co-efficient of DM and CP was 68 -78% and 72 -81%, respectively, which were comparable to those of Tripathi et al (2007).…”

Effect of yeast cultures supplementation on live weight change, rumen fermentation, ciliate protozoa population, microbial hydrolytic enzymes status and slaughtering performance of growing lamb

“…Similar of our finding, Kawas et al (2007) did not find change in carcass characteristics of light weight lambs fed finishing diets with sodium bicarbonate and yeast. The growth of the lambs was within reported range of variations for Native lambs in semi-arid ecology (Bhatt et al, 2008;Tripathi et al, 2007;Tripathi et al, 2004). The SC, SU and mixed yeast culture supplementation improved growth, possibly was the result of stimulated microbial growth and activity in rumen and increased proportion of available carbon toward microbial protein synthesis.…”

Effect of different feeding regimes on pre‐weaning growth rumen fermentation and its influence on post‐weaning performance of lambs

“…Present feeding system need to be modified under field and farm conditions to produce optimum carcass weight. Sizable nutritional studies carried out during post‐weaning phase of growth shown that lambs with higher WW perform better during post‐weaning phase of growth (Karim and Santra, 2000; Tripathi et al., 2004, 2007a–c; Karim et al., 2007; Misra et al., 2008). Thus, pre‐weaning nutrition and gains might have significant influence on post‐weaning performance and finishing live weight.…”